The Longest Day

The Archipelago was facing it's longest day. It was the Midnight Sun, two straight weeks of sunlight. The Vikings were getting as much work done as they could before the sun set again in a few days. The dragons helped out, since they could go longer without sleep than the humans could and knew the lack of sleep would catch up to them eventually. The work was being overseen by Stoic, Hiccup, Gobber, and Re. Hiccup glanced up at the sun.

"Hard to believe it's the middle of the night," he said.

"I love the Midnight Sun," said Stoic. "Constant sunlight for two whole weeks. Our most productive time of the year." Just then two guys started arguing and Stoic had to go break it up.

"In the first week," said Gobber. "But we're in day eight, where things start to get a wee bit crazy. Lack of sleep get to all of us eventually."

"Not us dragons," Re said. "We can go a whole three weeks without sleep, and this constant sunlight only lasts two."

"Mark my words the lack of sleep will make us all crazy, even you young'ens," said Gobber, pointing to Hiccup.

"That's why I sent Astrid and the others back to the Edge to do the simplest job," said Hiccup. "Wash their dragons. There's no way they can mess that up."

Back on the Edge the riders were trying to wash their dragons, but after being up for so long they could barely walk or think straight. The dragons weren't feeling the least bit sleepy. They watched their riders stumble around the arena, not behaving like themselves. Tenor was among them. Windshear watched as Heather fell over trying to get the dragon wet.

"This is getting so weird," Windshear said to the others.

"I know," said Stormfly. "Something tells me we're not getting a wash today."

"You mean tonight," said Windshear.

"Whatever," said Stormfly. She looked over at Tenor who was sleeping just outside the arena. He'd been extremely grouchy ever since the Midnight Sun had started. Everyone knew he wanted the stars and moon to return. He hadn't gone fishing for several days, all he did was sleep or walk around aimlessly.

"Poor Tenor, he must miss his stars," Windshear said.

"He feels he can't hunt or fish until the sun goes down," Stormfly said. "And that's not for another week."

"Maybe when Serenity comes back she'll help him feel better," said Windshear. "That is what she's good at." Just then Heather accidentally dumped more water on Windshear's head.

Back on Berk, on Skywalker's deck, Serenity sat in her chair. She waited to escort Hiccup and Toothless back to the Edge. The ship's crew was down bellow asleep. Serenity had just taken a nap. Just then Ruby came up to join her. Serenity smiled.

"Aren't you tired?" Ruby asked.

"I just took a nap," Serenity said. "I'm fine. Though I am worried about Tenor. He's never gone this long without the moon and stars."

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Ruby said. "It's not like the sunlight's going to kill him." Serenity stroked his snout and he nuzzled her.

"Are you tired at all?" she asked him.

"No," Ruby said. "I just woke up." He yawned and stretched his red wings. Serenity hugged him.

"Perhaps we can go flying," she suggested. Ruby stood back a bit.

"It's not safe to fly out there right now," he said. "Viggo's still after you." Serenity leaned back in her chair, and sighed.

"Could we just walk then?" she asked. "Around the village?" Ruby considered.

"All right," he said. "As long as we stay within sight of the village." He spread is wings and glided to the plaza bellow. Serenity climbed down the ladder after him. She jumped off the ladder right onto Ruby's back. Ruby turned away and walked off.

Inside Hiccup's house, Toothless was dozing off by the fire. Hiccup and Stoic were eating what was supposed to be dinner, but with the sun so high in the sky still it might as well be lunch. Hiccup finished his chicken then looked at Stoic.

"So Dad, I need to borrow the auxiliary riders," said Hiccup.

"Why?" asked Stoic casually, not even looking up.

"Oh, just to brush up on their training," Hiccup said, failing to sound just as casual.

"Ah, I see," Stoic said. Hiccup stretched and got up.

"Thanks dad," he said and hurried towards the door.

"Just one little thing son," Stoic said.

"Oh?" Hiccup said. He turned back around.

"Let me just say you are a terrible lier," Stoic said.

"Not sure I follow," Hiccup lied.

"I think you follow just fine," said Stoic. "We both know you want go after Viggo." Hiccup glared, and didn't speak for a few seconds.

"Ok fine," he admitted. "But can you blame me. He's tried to kill innocent people and dragons. He went after Berk. He has to pay for that." Stoic swallowed a mouthful of chicken before answering.

"Ok, lets say I agree," he said. "Lets hear your plan."

"My plan?" Hiccup stammered. "Wipe Viggo and his dragon hunting scum off the face of the Earth, kaboom!"

"Kaboom huh?" said Stoic. "Interesting not very many moving parts, much planning in your plan."

"Who needs planning, we have dragons," Hiccup said.

"So this basically boils down to revenge," said Stoic.

"See, I knew you'd understand," said Hiccup. He turned to leave again, but Stoic cleared his throat.

"Hiccup, there'll be no revenge on Viggo Grimborne," Stoic said sternly. Hiccup shut the door.

"What? You love revenge," he said. "Revenge is your thing. Weren't they going to call you Stoic the Vindictive instead of..."

"Eh, keep my weight out of this," Stoic demanded.

"Look if anyone deserves it, Viggo does," Hiccup said.

"Yes, but what comes after that?" asked Stoic getting to his feet. "Viggo's revenge, then our revenge on his revenge. It's pointless son."

"Viggo has the Dragon Eye," Hiccup argued. "He's used it capture and kill hundreds of dragons."

"Ah, so it's the Dragon Eye you want," said Stoic.

"Yeah I guess it is," said Hiccup. "But a little revenge could go a long way."

"I won't lie," Stoic said. "A bit of vengeance can go down a treat. But the feeling is short lived, and the violence only gets worse. I agree we must retrieve the Dragon Eye. But come back to me when you have a plan to do that, and that alone." Having no further argument to this, Hiccup turned and left the house with Toothless following.

Hiccup walked into the plaza. He looked up at the airship. Neither Re nor Aurora were around, and Tenor was back on the Edge. He turned to Toothless.

"I'm sure Re won't mind if I borrowed his ship," he said. "I'll ask the crew." He climbed up the ladder, and Toothless flew up onto the deck. They went down bellow where the ship's crew was just waking up.

"Hey guys," Hiccup said.

"Hello," said Heddrod. "What brings you down here?"

"I want to go after Viggo," Hiccup said. "At once." The dragons exchanged a glance.

"You sure you want to be fighting Viggo in your condition?" asked Viper.

"Is that a reference to my leg?" asked Hiccup.

"No, that's a reference to you not having slept for so long," Viper said. "You're going to get yourself killed going after Viggo with no plan."

"I have a plan," said Hiccup. All the dragons narrowed their eyes.

"Oh you do," said Phoenix. "Let's hear it then."

"Simple," said Hiccup. "Wipe Viggo and the hunters off the face of the Earth."

"Um, that's not a plan," said Morpho. "That's a goal. And it's a goal we're all for. But, impossible to achieve without a plan."

"I plan to use this ship," said Hiccup, though he already knew he'd lost this argument too.

"How?" asked Morpho. "Let's face it you have no plan, just fly into Viggo's ship like a kamikaze. We'll escort you back to the Edge, but that's it."

"Fine," Hiccup grumbled. "But if we see Viggo's hunters in route, we'll attack."

"Like I said, kamikaze," Morpho said. "Come Toothless, let's get this one to bed."

"I agree," Toothless said. "The lack of sleep is defiantly getting to him." They all went back up. Serenity and Ruby had returned by now.

"Serenity, we're going back to the Edge," Morpho said. Serenity beamed and went to her post. Hiccup mounted Toothless and took off. Serenity steered the ship after them.

They headed away from Berk and headed for Dragon's Edge. Hiccup pouted the whole way. For a while no one spoke. Serenity sang a little, but that was the only sound apart from wings beats and the fire in the balloon. Ruby sat beside his ward and listened to her songs.

After a while, Hiccup spoke.

"You know what guys, why am I even asking for permission?" he said. "It's my war against Viggo. My dad just doesn't get me." The Draconians exchanged a glance.

"Okay, he's starting to scare me," said Viper in Dragontongue.

"It's the insomnia talking I thing," said Morpho.

"The sooner we get to the Edge the better," Toothless said. Suddenly there came a loud screech from bellow. Toothless stopped and spun round.

"Whoa what is it bud?" Hiccup asked. The screech came again, answering the question. "Oh, it sounds like a dragon in trouble. I must be tired, I totally missed it." They headed towards a nearby island. Serenity flew the ship after them and pulled it to a stop over the beach. The sand was littered with dragon hunter equipment. Toothless landed beside the overturned ship. Serenity got off her chair and went down to the main deck and stood beside her friends.

"Dragon hunters," Hiccup said. There came more screeching. They followed the sound and discovered a small blue and green dragon laying on the sand squirming. It was about the size of a large wolf and had a very round head.

"What's the matter with him?" asked Serenity.

"I don't know, maybe nothing," said Viper.

"Doesn't look like nothing," Serenity said. "I'll go get my bag."

"Hold on a second," Viper said. "We'll go see what's going on. I'll call you if we need you." She spread her wings and flew down to join Hiccup and Toothless. Hiccup approached the smaller dragon.

"Watch my back," he said. He turned back to the smaller dragon. "Hey it's okay. Whatever it was it's over now." The dragon didn't answer, but kept writhing. He seemed to be favoring his left wing. "Oh, is your wing hurt? We can fix that." Suddenly Toothless growled alerting Hiccup to at least three more blue green dragons emerging out of the shrubs. They growled and ran towards Hiccup and Toothless. Toothless growled back. The three dragons charged at them, but Toothless knocked them back with a plasma blast. Then the first dragon got to his feet.

"Hey, you're not hurt," said Hiccup. The first dragon snapped his jaws at him. Toothless jumped over Hiccup and readied another blast. He stared the smaller dragon down. He backed towards his fellows. Toothless was about to fire, but Hiccup stopped him.

"No bud," he said. "They're scared, and just trying to protect their friend." Toothless swallowed his blast, but still growled. The four dragons growled at them, then turned and ran off. Toothless relaxed a bit.

"Thanks for having my back," Hiccup said. "My reflexes seem to be slower than normal." Toothless snorted. Hiccup stared after the wild dragons and Toothless could almost read his mind. He roared at him, sounding very disapproving. "Oh come on, you know we're going after those guys. We have to help them."

"Um, I think they've made it very clear that they don't need any help," Viper said.

"I want to check it out anyway," Hiccup said. Viper sighed.

"We'll watch from the air," she said. "Call us if you need back up."

"Thanks, but we'll be fine," Hiccup said. Viper looked at Toothless for a second opinion.

"I'll keep us both out of trouble," Toothless said. "I've dealt with this particular species before."

"Very well," Viper said. "Just don't let you're guard down. I've read about these dragons. They always have a plan, learn quickly and have been known to be smarter then even the smartest human. I doubt even Viggo would be able to outsmart them." She spread her wings and flew back onto Skywalker's deck.

"Good call Viper," Serenity said. "It's a good thing you stopped me from going down there."

"I've read about these dragons too," Morpho said. "The books call them Wolf Dragons, because they hunt in packs like wolves, and their behavior is very similar to wolves. They are one of the only species of dragons that eat humans. Hiccup will come up with a different name for them naturally."

"But if these guys are like wolves, where's their alpha?" Serenity asked. Morpho looked up at the sky.

"That," he said. "Is an excellent question. We should get this ship up higher, their alpha won't be far." Serenity went back to her chair. She fired up the ship and steered it towards the island's highest peak. Just as she pulled it to a stop again, a red Hermes Dragon flew up to her carrying something round in her talons, that was covered with a cloth. She handed the item to Serenity who took it.

"Thank you," she said. She pulled out a small scroll and tied it to the dragon's horn. "Please take this back to Steel." The Hermes Dragon nodded then took off. The other Draconians looked curious.

"What's that?" Phoenix asked.

"It's a present for Tenor," Serenity said. "This constant sunlight is getting to him. I'm hoping this will cheer him up a bit."

"But what is it?" asked Viper.

"Come downstairs, I'll show you," Serenity said.

"Ruby, you say out here and keep an eye out for the alpha," Morpho said. Ruby nodded. They followed Serenity below decks.

Tenor lay in the grass. He watched the riders stumbling about the arena, clearly suffering from exhaustion. Astrid was prancing about, all hyper. Snotlout was suffering from sever mood swings, Heather was lacking basic coordination, Fishlegs was getting extremely paranoid, and the Twins were hallucinating. Their dragons were getting more and more worried that their riders were going to hurt themselves. Suddenly the sun came out from behind the clouds and hit Tenor. His black scales absorbed all the heat, and he felt it burning him. He jumped to his feet and went into the arena where there was a bit of shade. Stormfly looked at him.

"Are you okay?" she asked him.

"I'm a creature of the night," Tenor hissed. "I'm not used to so much sunlight. It's starting to burn me."

"I'm sure Toothless is suffering the same thing," Stormfly said. "He's also a creature of the night."

"Maybe," Tenor said. "Though he doesn't spend as much in the dark as I do. But I don't know everything about him."

"Toothless is probably the biggest mystery in our world," Sromfly said. "He was never seen in Dragon Island during the Red Death's reign. Whenever we attacked Berk for food he would just come out of nowhere like a black ghost. He was the Red Death's number one target. We were all wondering if he was sent by Draco himself to save us."

"Sure sounds like it," Tenor said. "Still I hope the stars and moon come back. I'm hungry."

"Why don't you go hunting then?" asked Stormfly.

"I only hunt at night," Tenor said. "I'm too exposed in the daylight. There's food on Skywalker, I'll wait for it to get back."

"As long as you don't starve yourself," said Stormfly. Just then she spotted three maces falling towards Astrid and Snotlout. She squawked and shot them away. Hookfang and Windshear exchanged a glance.

"We should do something," Windshear said. "Before they hurt themselves."

"Like what?" asked Hookfang. "We can't put them in their huts, they'll just come right back out again."

"We'll need to put them somewhere they can't get out," said Windshear. "Somewhere nice and dark so they can get some rest."

"Where would that be?" Hookfang asked.

"Leave that to me," Windshear said. She turned back to Heather, who accidentally splashed water everywhere.

Back on the island, Hiccup looked through his spyglass at the pack of wild dragons. They turned and ran off. Hiccup motioned for Toothless to follow him. They followed the wild dragons, even though they were out of sight. They soon came to the base of a deep, narrow canyon. Dragon footprints lead straight into it. Toothless gave a worried croon.

"I agree, it looks pretty tight," Hiccup said. "Let's go around." He and Toothless turned around, only to see the wild dragons staring at them. Toothless growled.

"Ok, I see what you were worried about now," Hiccup said. "But look they haven't done anything." Toothless kept growling. The wild dragons shot fiery cannon balls into the air, which Hiccup and Toothless managed to dodge them.

"Ok, now they've done something," Hiccup said. Suddenly three more wolf-like dragons joined the first three and they began pushing Hiccup and Toothless towards the canyon.

"How many of these guys are there?" Hiccup wondered aloud. "Well, looks like it's the canyon." He ran into the canyon, Toothless right behind him. They ran and hid behind a wall. The wild dragons ran into the canyon, blocking the way out. Hiccup glanced up at the opening above.

"Not wide enough to fly out of," he said. Toothless snarled. "Let me try something real quick." He pulled out Inferno and stepped out to face the wild ones. He ignited the blade and waved it at them. At first they seemed interested.

"Yeah, see?" said Hiccup. "Everyone loves the Dragon Blade." But suddenly the wild dragons opened their mouth to fire again. Toothless quickly between Hiccup and the wild ones, blocking their shots with his body. He stood protectively over his rider and fired plasma blasts at them. They scattered and rocks fell to block the entrance. Toothless shook himself. The fire from the blasts had burned him a bit, but nothing too damaging.

"Ok, I guess not everyone loves the Dragon Blade." Toothless snorted.

On Skywalker's deck the Draconians watched for the dragon pack's alpha. Serenity sat in her chair, Tenor's present in her lap. The dragons had watched Hiccup and Toothless run into the canyon. The dragon pack circled around.

"So far so good," said Phoenix. "They haven't gotten killed yet."

"You think we should help them?" asked Heddrod. "Even the odds a bit."

"No," Morpho said. "Let them have some quality time together, just the two of them. If they look like they're about to fail, we'll step in. For now, we must keep an eye out for that alpha."

"Maybe I can go flying with Ruby to pass the time," Serenity said.

"No," Viper said sternly. "You must stay with us. These dragons eat humans and they won't care if you can speak our language't . You'll be safer here. Tenor said you love our kind a little too much, and won't see wild dragons for the threat the can be."

"You guys are wild dragons," Serenity said. Ruby walked up to her.

"Serenity please," he said. "Stay where it's safe. I know you want to go flying so badly and we will, I promise." Serenity sighed.

"All right," she said. She leaned back into her chair and fiddled with the helm. Ruby laid next to her. He saw the sad look in her eyes. He nudged her gently.

"Why do you want to fly so badly even though it's so dangerous?" he asked. "I don't want to lose you again." Serenity didn't answer, but her expression went sadder.

"I'm sorry," she said after a while. "I don't want to be separated from you again either. I just miss flying so much."

"I know you do," Ruby said. "But you must be patient. I think you need to go to bed when we get back to the Edge. You're very tired, and you haven't slept very well since the Midnight Sun started." Serenity did feel her eyes getting heavy.

"Well I hope they hurry up down there," she said. She got off the chair and sat on the floor next to Ruby. He draped his wing around her and she looped her arm around his neck. She buried her face into is scales. They lay there together to wait.

Back on the Edge, the riders were slipping deeper and deeper into madness. Windshear watched as Heather brushed the wall of the arena, thinking it was the dragon. Windshear went over to her fellow dragons. They watched as Astrid actually began babying Snotlout, who was still suffering mood swings. Fishlegs was hiding behind a stack of crates, looking very paranoid. The Twins were acting weirder than usual.

"This is getting out of hand," said Stormfly. "If we don't do something soon, they're going to hurt themselves."

"I agree," Hookfang said. "I hope Hiccup and Toothless get back soon, and the airship."

"Until they do, it's up to us," said Windshear. The dragons nodded in agreement.

Hiccup and Toothless walked through the canyon, trying to find another exit. The wild dragons flew above them, occasionally dropping fiery canon balls into the canyon, which exploded. Hiccup and Toothless ran away from the explosion. But Hiccup could only go so far. He stopped and leaned on a nearby rock.

"I need to rest a minuet," he said. Toothless looked more worried that Hiccup wasn't going to last much longer, and would soon collapse from pure exhaustion. Just then the wolf-like dragons passed over again.

"Man do these guys ever give up?" Hiccup panted. They got moving again and soon came to a dead end. In front of them, were more dragon hunter equipment, all broken.

"Dead end, great," said Hiccup, picking up a helmet. "You know I'm starting to think the hunters became the hunted." He then spotted a break in the thick canopy of trees on the rim of the canyon. "Look, that's our way out." He mounted Toothless and they took off. They came face to face with the pack of dragons, they fired making Toothless fly in the opposite direction. He flew as fast as he could, and they gave chase. Toothless dodged the canon balls fired at him, making sure none of them hit Hiccup. But eventually the wild dragons knocked Toothless to the ground, and Hiccup fell out of the saddle. The pack attacked them, but Toothless fired at them keeping them at bay. Hiccup got back on, and Toothless took off again. He faced the wild ones, but suddenly they flew off.

"Wait they're leaving?" Hiccup said, confused. But then he heard a loud roar behind him. He and Toothless turned to see a bigger dragon. This one was light green, had a big round flat head, and eyes so tiny they could hardly be seen. The smaller dragons latched themselves onto the underside of the big one's wings. They charged Hiccup and Toothless, who turned and flew off. The wild dragons fired rapidly at them. They eventually managed to knock Hiccup out of the saddle. He fell towards the ground. Toothless dove after him, but got hit as well and knocked out. He came round a few second later, still falling. He spun round and dove after Hiccup again. He caught him, just as they hit the ground. A few of the small dragons separated from their alpha and dive bombed them. Toothless hit one with his tail, and blasted the rest, stunning them. Hiccup got to his feet and they ran off. They quickly looked for a place to hide. Hiccup soon spotted a cave with grey netting over the entrance.

"Toothless, there," he said. He ran towards the cave, and Toothless followed him into it.

It was awful dark inside. They wandered deeper into a narrow tunnel. They soon came to a large dark room. Toothless lit a torch, lighting up the place. In the room, they found what looked like a hidden campsite. There were crates full of hunting objects and maps. More maps lined the wall. Untouched food sat on a small table near a cold fire pit. Hiccup went up to the biggest map on the wall. It had a lot of red X's on it.

"This was an observation post," he said. "They were spying on Berk from here, until they ran into those dragons." Suddenly the cave shook violently and dust fell, but stopped just as suddenly. Hiccup picked up an arrowhead, thinking hard.

"So what do we know," he said. "Big dragon. Wait we gotta call these guys something. Okay so what to they do, they follow, they herd, they shadow. Yes, ShadowWings. All in favor?" He put up is hand. Toothless didn't move. "Good it's unanimous." He placed the big arrowhead on the ground. "So the big dragon is not as fast or as maneuverable as us, so we have an advantage there. But to even have a chance to get passed it, we have to go through several of the smaller ShadowWings. And they are quicker then us, and they're smart and work as a team; and Viper said they learn quickly." He pinched the bridge of his nose, moaning in frustration. "I don't know what to do." Toothless nudged him encouragingly. Hiccup smiled at him and scratched his chin. "Yeah your right. We can do this. What we need is a plan." He got up and took the big map off the wall.

Back at the Edge the riders had completely lost it. The Twins were throwing punches, Snotlout kept bursting into tears for no reason. They dragons watched this.

"Any ideas guys?" asked Belch.

"I've got nothing," said Hookfang.

"Hey guys," said Windshear. She used her tail to open a trap door in the floor of the arena. It was pitch black in there, and very quiet

"Oh, great idea Windshear," said Stormfly. "I completely forgot we had that."

"And when the others get back, Toothless can put Hiccup in there too," said Hookfang. One by one the dragons tossed their riders into the pit. Windshear closed the door and they laid down to wait.

Back in the cave Hiccup had drawn on the back of the big map. He used the arrowheads to represent the ShadowWings. So far he came up with nothing. Toothless could tell he was loosing his touch due to lack of sleep. Suddenly the cave shook again. A bit of dust landed on Toothless's nose, making him sneeze. The arrowheads were scattered, and this somehow gave Hiccup an idea.

"Toothless you are a genius," he exclaimed. Toothless was completely confused however.

A few minuets later Hiccup went to a nearby stream and filled a water canteen. He kept a weary eye out the whole time. So far, no ShadowWings appeared.

"Come on," Hiccup muttered. "I know you guys are out there." All too soon, he heard ShadowWings behind him. He spun round just in time to see two ShadowWings get caught in a netting trap. Hiccup smirked. They began squealing loudly.

"That's it guys, call for help," Hiccup taunted. Four more ShadowWings dive bombed him. He ran back in the direction of the cave. The ShadowWings flew after him, into he cave. But Hiccup hadn't gone into the cave. He'd run into the shrubs across from it. When the ShadowWings ran into the cave, Hiccup and Toothless came out of hiding. Toothless shot at at the entrance, making rocks fall and trap the ShadowWings inside. Hiccup then mounted Toothless and they took off, looking for the last of the ShadowWings.

"Six down, four to go," Hiccup said confidently. Soon they found the big ShadowWing, with four smaller ones still attached to it's wings. Toothless flew at them head on. When two of the ShadowWings opened their mouths to fire, he shot two plasma blasts at them. The blasts hit the two other dragons, stunning them, and making them fall off their alpha's wing. This left only two small ShadowWings left. They dislodged themselves and flew back at Toothless. Hiccup made Toothless fly straight upward and the remaining ShadowWings were hot on their tail. Suddenly the two small ones latched onto Toothless's wings, causing drag. He struggled to get them off, but with no success. To make matters worse he felt the big ShadowWing close in and snap his jaws at Toothless's tail. Hiccup seemed to have run out of ideas. Toothless snorted in frustration, and took over. He stopped and went into a power dive. As he sped towards the ground, he spun rapidly. This forced the ShadowWings to let go of his wings. While he spun, he fired plasma blasts at the ground, kicking up a huge cloud of dust and water. He felt the big dragon close in on him. He used his sonar to detect how far the ground was. When he was close enough, he got out of the way quick. The big ShadowWing was not as quick and smacked into the ground, hard. Toothless hovered overhead.

"I wasn't worried," Hiccup said, stunned. "I knew you had all along." Toothless snarled angrily. "Okay, I was a little worried. Let's go home." They headed away from the island. They were soon joined by the airship. It pulled alongside them. Viper was watching them.

"You guys have fun?" she asked, sounding amused

"Where were you the whole time?" asked Hiccup. "Why didn't you come help."

"Morpho felt you two needed to spend some quality time alone together," Viper said. "Besides, you said you didn't need us." Hiccup could find no argument to this. They sped up and headed back to the Edge.

When they got there, Hiccup and Toothless landed in the arena and Serenity pulled the ship to a stop over the grass beside it. Hiccup dismounted and Serenity climbed down the ladder with Tenor's present. Hiccup glanced around confused. All the dragons were there, but none of the riders were.

"Where is everyone?" he asked no one. "And why aren't these dragons clean?" The dragons went over to the trap door. Hiccup followed and opened the door. He found all the riders fast asleep in there

"Oh of course, everyone gets to sleep but me," he said annoyed. Toothless pushed him into the pit with the others, and closed the door. He sat on his haunches and sighed.

"I'm so glad that's over," he said.

"What kept you guys?" asked Windshear.

"Long story," Toothless said. "I'll tell you later." He yawned. Serenity approached the arena, having already reunited with Tenor.

"You guys still want a wash?" she asked. The dragons all beamed.

"Thanks Serenity but grooming and feeding gives us opportunities or spend quality time with our riders," Stormfly said. "Outside the battlefield anyway." Serenity smiled respectively.

"We should get some sleep anyway," Hookfang said, and they all agreed. They curled up together.

"Why don't you join us?" Meatlug suggested. Serenity smiled wider.

"All right," she said. "I'll be there in a minuet. I want to give Tenor his present." The dragons laid down. Serenity pulled the big leaver and the dome closed around them, providing them with darkness. As it closed, Serenity turned to Tenor.

"How've you been holding up?" she asked. Tenor sighed.

"I'm alright," he said. He spotted the clothed item in her hands. "What's that?"

"I got you a present," Serenity said. "Since you've been missing the moon and stars. Let's go into the dome, it needs darkness to work. I'm hoping it will cheer you up." Tenor followed her into the dome. It was very dark in there. The other dragons seemed to have just fallen asleep. Tenor laid beside them and Serenity sat between him and Toothless. She set the item on the ground and took off it's covering. It turned out to be a metal sphere with thousands of tiny holes carved into it, as well as a crescent moon. Inside there were three large glowing crystals. So when the cloth was removed, the light came through the holes and turned the dome into the starry sky, with a crescent moon. A few of the makeshift stars even formed constellations such as: The Big Dipper, The Little Dipper, Pegasus, Orion, Hercules, and of course Draco. Tenor almost cried. It looked just like the real night sky, the one he'd been missing all this time. He smiled and nuzzled Serenity.

"Thank you, thank you so much," he said. The other dragons saw this too. They too liked the makeshift stars and moon, and were very touched with Serenity's commitment to her friend. They laid back down. Tenor licked Serenity's face. She laughed and leaned her head on his side.

"Do you like it?" she asked.

"I do," Tenor said. "I really do." Serenity closed her eyes and soon feel asleep. Tenor glanced up at the makeshift moon and stars. They really did look like the real thing. He looked down at his rider, loving her even more. He licked her cheek and laid his head down. He heaved a happy sigh and soon fell asleep as well.