Toothless had been restless since they got back. He knew nothing could hurt Cloudjumper. His mate had enough strength and experience to defeat the whole pack of Sand Wraiths himself!
Hiccup walked around the village, doing his chiefly duties while Toothless decided to stay back at his house. He shuffled around before decided to find something to occupy his mind.
The Night Fury felt an urge to create something. With Hiccup gone on his duty, his instinct suggested him to try build a nest. Dragons made it both for mating and for hatchlings. For example, Stormfly was now sleeping with her mate in the nest he built until it's time to go to the Hot-Spring Island.
Toothless hummed when this thought hit him and decided to do as his instinct suggested, try building himself a nest. The Night Fury immediately went explore the plants and other possible building materials around the village. The plan for his nest was slowly formulating in his mind, and Toothless couldn't stop grinning as he wondered what face Cloudjumper would make when he saw little surprise he is building.
After spending his time surveying the island, Toothless brought home lots of large branches from various trees. He dropped them all down before going out again to gather what he still needed. Toothless wanted a nest that could fit both himself and Cloudjumper, like that nest Cloudjumper built for him when he was in heat.
Unable to fly by himself frustrated Toothless as he tried to reach for the long brunch he couldn't climb up to get. The Night Fury growled at the tree and got down after his fifth try. He blasted the tree and smiled smugly as it slowly fell down, broken in a half.
About half an hour passed and Toothless already had the rough structure for the nest. He sighed and sat down to admire his work. The hard part wasn't finding the suitable branches, but to carry them here. Going on foot was the only choice Toothless had as he couldn't fly.
The Night Fury sighed, decided to go out again since Cloudjumper wouldn't be back anytime soon.
Apart from branches, Toothless also wanted animal fur. Human seemed to prefer a bed made of wool but that's not what Toothless wanted. It's too soft and too thick. Maybe wild boar hide would do. However, Toothless didn't feel like hunting right now, so he settled down with what he had.
Toothless spent an hour arranging the branches to create a comfortable bed. It got better and better as he worked. After using all the branches he had, Toothless stepped back to admire his work. Well, it would be better if he had animal hide to decorate it.
"Whoa, bud. What are you doing here? A nest?" Hiccup's voice jerked him from his thought. Toothless turned and cooed at his rider. Hiccup was standing behind him, amazed.
"Are you nesting right now?" Hiccup asked, walking in to check the nest. Toothless rolled his eyes. He wasn't nesting yet but he was preparing for it. The Night Fury cooed at a higher pitch and Hiccup got the message.
"Alright, no need to be angry," Hiccup said, rubbing his nose. Toothless sighed but let his rider rub it right away. He even purred in satisfaction as Hiccup moved to scratch the under his jaw. He always had a problem reaching that place.
"So, you are going to be a Mama, right?" Hiccup asked again and Toothless thanked nature that dragons can't blush. Okay, they did blush but humans were unable to tell they are blushing.
Despite the heat flooding his cheeks, Toothless purred and rubbed his nose with Hiccup's cheek. He knew Hiccup would get the message. Of course he was going to be a Mama. The Toothless of the past would have freaked out, but right now he felt content and happy. He knew he could do it. And he wasn't in this alone, he had Cloudjumper with him. Actually, he was already wondering about what he should name them. Toothless didn't care of they were hybrids or not. He would love them nonetheless.
Hiccup examined the nest he made more. His rider even offer help for finding materials Toothless still needed. The Night Fury was so happy he told Hiccup they would go out tomorrow morning to hunt some wild animals. Of course Toothless wasn't sure if Hiccup got the message right, but his rider always got it when Toothless wanted to fly.
His rider went to tinker something in the back room of the house which he turned into his small workshop. Toothless laid down near the nest, and quietly listened to the sound of Hiccup working. He was wondering how Cloudjumper was doing. He hoped the older dragon would be back soon.
"Hey, Toothless."
Soft voice called him. Toothless blinked. He must had dozed off while he waited for Cloudjumper. The Night Fury stretched and got a soft lick on his nose. Toothless purred and forced his eyes open. He knew from the scent that it's Cloudjumper. The Night Fury purred as he felt the heat radiating from the body beside him, and he quickly snugged close.
"What have you found there?" Toothless asked as Cloudjumper draped one of his wing over him. "Find out about their evil plan?" The Night Fury asked next, nuzzling his forehead with the Stormcutter's chin. He felt Cloudjumper rumbled deep in his throat.
"An army, ready for war." Cloudjumper replied, it nearly had Toothless shot up from where he was laying. "Valka rescued one injured Hackatoo, and brought her back. She was tended at the Dragon Academy. Gobber was so excited to examine her teeth, to see if Dagur had fed her badly or not."
"Hmm, I can't wait to welcome the new member of our pack." Toothless hummed, keeping himself in place as he heard Valka and Hiccup talking in the next room. "So, what's the evil plan is? I think since you're here, that means they want you to do the talking." He purred for more nuzzling. Cloudjumper purred and complied quickly.
"Yes," Cloudjumper replied after a while. "Dagur wants to hit us in seven days. He would divide his men into three groups, one would hit us in the front while another sneaks into the underground tunnel, and the last group would hit us from the forest. He wants to get us all before the snow arrives."
"Have Hiccup told the village yet?" Toothless asked, "We need to get ready."
"I guess he is about to," Cloudjumper replied, looking at the entrance which connected their room to the living room. "Valka and I just got back. We wanted to tell you two first."
As Cloudjumper finished his sentence, Hiccup walked into their room. From the look in Hiccup's face, Toothless knew it's time to gather the villagers to the Meade Hall.
Toothless and Cloudjumper stayed at one corner of the Hall as they watched Hiccup, Valka, and Eret revealed what they had found. The villagers were shocked and angry. They just had their peaceful life back, and now Dagur wanted to take it from them. Toothless chuckled at how they would beat up Dagur if they had a chance.
Not so far away from him, Stormfly sat with Meatlug and Hookfang. They discussed the strategy they should use against Dagur as Toothless listened. The Night Fury joined in their discussion sometimes. He liked Stormfly's idea of assaulting their ships from underwater with an army of Thunderdrums, Scauldrons, and Seashockers. Also, releasing a bunch of Terrible Terror onto the archers seemed to be a good choice too. Hookfang really got creative sometimes.
Valka announced she would take care of the dragons in battle. The dragon whisperer drew out some of the attack pattern she had trained with her dragons. Cloudjumper warbled some of his opinions out loud to Valka as she spoke. Valka listened and always told the villager what he thought. This always had Toothless jealous in how close Cloudjumper and Valka were. He really wanted him and Hiccup to share a bond like them.
After a long meeting, some villagers got back to get some rest while the others, the head of each units, still stayed with Hiccup and Valka. They discussed on how to defend the village as best as possible. Hiccup could do better than Toothless had thought. The boy definitely had grown. He was not calmer and wiser. Also, Hiccup had done his homework well at studying from his father about how to be a good Chief.
Toothless stayed in the Meade Hall, listening and dozing off sometimes. It's almost dawn when the meeting was over. The heads of each units were dismissed as all of them needed some rest.
Toothless got back to the house and laid down. He heard Cloudjumper shuffle and lay down beside him, pulling him into an embrace.
"You didn't tell me why you built the nest." The Stormcutter mused and Toothless felt his cheeks heat up. Yeah, he totally forgot about it.
"I felt like I should ..." Toothless replied, closing his eyes as he snugged closer to Cloudjumper's chest. "It feels right. It isn't finished yet, I still need some furs. I don't want to use wool."
"Wool is bad for our scales." Cloudjumper nodded, "don't worry, I will find some. You have already built the nest. Let me do the decoration part, alright?"
"Alright," Toothless replied and closed his eyes. There was a long day ahead of them. They had to get ready before Dagur attacked.
The next morning Toothless woke up and stretched in the wonderful cocoon he was sleeping in. He cooed and Cloudjumper stirred, but didn't wake up. The Night Fury stretched again and groaned as he felt a dull ache in his lower back. Might be from his restless night. The Night Fury yawned and licked Cloudjumper's jaw, telling his mate the sun had risen.
"You go ahead," Cloudjumper nuzzled him back, opening his wing. Toothless cooed and walked to wake Hiccup up. Valka was already at the kitchen, cooking something for her son. The Night Fury greeted her and went up stair.
Licking and grooming Hiccup always had his rider wake up in an instant. Toothless smiled to the groaning man and went to wait for the Chief of the village to get ready for the day. He knew they're going to have a lot of work to do.
While they were eating, Valka and Hiccup talked about their plans. Today Valka would check all the dragons, including the Hackatoo she just brought back from Dagur's army. Toothless wanted to visit her, to welcome the new one. However, Cloudjumper told him not to go. The Stormcutter would approach her first, wanting to make sure she would not attack them. Also, by most dragons' culture, the first one to examine the new member was the second in command, not the alpha.
Toothless went out with Hiccup after breakfast. Their first stop was at the port. They had to rebuild it, adding more catapults along the shoreline. Eret and Skullcrusher were already there, helping with the fortifications.
"It's good to see you Toothless," Skullcrusher greeted him as both of them hooked their claws to the robes that were tied to a large bag, full with old woods. "How are the babies doing?"
"I just mated, Skullcrusher." Toothless felt his face heat up. "I don't even know how many… babies… I will have. I might have just one."
"You will feel it soon enough." Skullcrusher replied with a chuckle. "By the way, does Cloudjumper treat you right?"
"He is a wonderful mate." Toothless answered with a grin, he knew Skullcrusher just worried about him. "You don't have to worry." He added, trying to reassure the older dragon that everything is okay.
"If you say so," he Rumblehorn replied and changed the topic. The Rumblehorn talked about the Berserker and their plans for defending their home. Toothless also felt that the older dragon was more than ready to fight Dagur and his army.
Toothless helped the villagers and other dragons move things and fortify the port it for hours, before Hiccup let Eret take charge. The former trapper had more experience than him about how to destroy ships.
After the port, Hiccup went to meet Astrid and Snotlout who just finished their short patrol of the islands around Berk. They found nothing out of order, so Hiccup assigned Snotlout to go help the blacksmiths storing weapons and adding traps they were going to use against Dagur in the village. Snotlout was so happy to be assigned for this task. He always loved to work with weapons.
"So," Astrid asked after Snotlout was gone. "How is your day?" Her voice was soft and full of care.
"Fine, I think." Hiccup shrugged, "I just finished checking the port. We still have the forest to take care of. Mom is still busy with the dragons. Also, we need to make sure the safe path to evacuate people in case anything goes wrong is actually safe."
"What about those tunnels around the shore?" Astrid asked, scratching Stormfly's chin. "We couldn't leave them like that. Dagur could dig up and appear in the middle of the village."
"Don't worry, I got Fishlegs and the twins working on them." Hiccup replied with a grin, "I'm sure they would set up some wonderful traps for Dagur. I also specifically asked them using their 'pranks' on Dagur as much as possible."
"I can't wait to see how he will do, trying to sneak through those tunnels." Astrid giggled and kissed Hiccup softly on the cheek. "Alright, I'm going to make sure the forest is secured. Catch you later."
And then she left with Stormfly and a bunch of Deadly Nadders. Hiccup whistled as he watched she made her way to the Meade Hall. Toothless warbled and grunted to get Hiccup's attention back. His rider laughed, scratching his chin to improve Toothless' mood. The human knew Toothless was a bit upset for being away from Cloudjumper for long. After that, they went to the path they would use as an escape route, should something bad happen.
Toothless called some dragons to help clear the path. After they made sure the path is safe for travel, they covered and secured it from prying eyes. Toothless was happy they could get the work done before lunch time. He was very hungry by now.
They found Astrid at the Meade Hall, along with Eret and Gobber. Eret reported that the catapults would be ready by tomorrow afternoon. The construction went faster than he had thought, when they had dragons helping them. Several dragons approached Toothless during the meal. They wanted to discuss about how they should face them in case there was a battle. Each of them were experienced in war, both from Valka's sanctuary and Drago's army.
Cloudjumper went into the Meade Hall when Toothless was in a deep conversation with a male Deadly Nadder who was with Valka for years. He was describing each strategy they could use against Dagur when Cloudjumper dropped himself beside Toothless.
"I like the first formation more," Cloudjumper said as his sudden appearing made the Deadly Nadder stop in his track. "Dagur's army has many Timberjacks and Thornridges. They are fast, but not manoeuvrable. Using the first formation would allow you to dodge their attack quickly and regroup. Also, putting Windstrikers in the front line will help defending the sudden strike. Your Super-heated Air is great for close combat."
"As you wish, boss." The female Windstriker who was sitting near the Deadly Nadder grinned. She had a scar on her left wing, given to her by trappers. She couldn't wait to pay them back. Cloudjumper nodded at her and went on with other defending formation they could use against Dagur's attack.
They discussed more about the upcoming battle. All the time Toothless had a feeling that Cloudjumper might get jealous, as the Stormcutter intently draped his long tail on his.
The discussion went well. Toothless urged Cloudjumper to go grab his lunch while he made his way to Hiccup, to see how his rider was doing. When he saw that Hiccup was doing just fine, he got back to Cloudjumper.
"I think you were jealous back there," Toothless said as he settled down beside his mate. "Or you wouldn't drape your tail on me."
"I was jealous," Cloudjumper shrugged, "Actually I wanted to drape my wings on you. But that was going to be too obvious." He added and smiled, knowing he had made Toothless blush.
"So, how is your day?" Toothless asked, deciding to change the topic. "I've heard you went to the Academy." He laid down and put his chin on his front paws, but still keeping his eyes on Cloudjumper.
"The Hackatoo is doing well," Cloudjumper replied, "I went to check on her. She woke up, and was a bit confused. It took Valka a while to calm her down, to convince her we mean no harm. After that, I introduced her to Berk. She didn't care much that we kidnapped her. Dagur had kidnapped her from her home. We treated her a lot better than his army." The Stormcutter paused to swallow the fish. Behind them, their tails entwined. Toothless squeezed Cloudjumper's tail gently and the larger dragon squeezed back.
"Also," Coudjumper continued. "The dragons there didn't treat her well. They just formed the pack and there are always fights since the Berserker couldn't find them enough food. Actually she was so glad we brought her here. And I think she is ready to meet you." He finished his sentence with a brief nuzzling and went back to his lunch.
"I see," Toothless smiled, "So where is she now?" He asked, ready to get up.
"She is resting in the Academy," Cloudjumper replied, "despite the wounds on her legs and feet, she got an upset stomach. Living with other dragons' leftover causes it. However, she is ready to see you."
"Alright," Toothless smiled, getting up. "So I will go do some 'Alpha's duty'. Catch you later."
As Toothless turned to walk out of the Meade Hall, Cloudjumper quickly turned his head from the pile of fish to lick Toothless' jaw softly. It nearly made the Night Fury jump. Luckily, there was no other dragon in the Meade Hall besides them.
"Tonight I think we have something to discuss. About the ache in your lower back." The Stormcutter whispered and turned back to the pile of fish in front of him.
"How did you know?" Toothless was gaping, and frowning. "I don't remember telling you." He added.
"Your back is stiff." Cloudjumper shrugged, smirking. Toothless frowned as he sensed a feeling of the heat, sweet heat like when they mated in the hidden cave. But before the Night Fury could demand an explanation what the smirking meant, Hookfang, his rider, and his band of Monstrous Nightmares went in for their lunch. So Toothless decided to drop it and got out. He still felt the ache during the day, however, it wasn't so bad – just annoying. Right now Cloudjumper's words had him interested. Also, Toothless had a feeling that he was going to like what Cloudjumper wanted to discuss.
Toothless went to the Academy and smiled as he saw Meatlug there. Meatlug was talking to the new Hackatoo. She seemed to be a little scared, but Toothless knew Meatlug was going to make she feel comfortable here. The female Gronckle was one of the most caring dragons on Berk. Toothless was glad Cloudjumper sent her to take care of their new pack member.
"So, I see you two get along well," He walked in, greeting both of them. The Hackatoo squeaked in surprise while Meatlug only smiled.
"I'm glad to see you here, Toothless." She said, turning to the young Hackatoo. "Cheedo, this is our alpha."
"Ngh, just Toothless is enough." Toothless smiled, greeting the young Hackatoo. "Welcome to Berk."
"Thank you alpha," Cheedo lowered her hear as she turned to Toothless. "You are so kind."
"Nah, that's how we treat everybody here." Toothless replied, sitting down in front of Cheedo. "So, how are you doing? Cloudjumper told me you have an upset stomach, and wounds at your legs."
"They're healing." Cheedo replied, looking around. "The old human who tended them is so kind. I… I think I don't remember her name…"
"Gothi," Meatlug added, "Her name is Gothi. She doesn't talk, but she is great at what she is doing."
"Thank you," The Hackatoo bobbing her head at Meatlug, as to say thank you. "I have never met a human like this before." She continued. "The humans from my old pack weren't this friendly. Actually, I think they don't care about us at all. My former alpha said we must stay away from them as much as we could. I guess this is not how things here work, right?"
"Right," Toothless said. He felt sorry for this young Hackatoo already. "In Berk, We help each other. We protect each other, both humans and dragons. There is no need to be afraid."
"Sounds good," Cheedo smiled. "I can't wait to get out and see the village. You called this place a village, right?"
"Right," Toothless nodded. "We call this place a village, a home."
They talked more and Toothless liked this Hackatoo already. She had been mistreated, but Toothless would make sure she would feel safe here. Meatlug volunteered to take the young dragon on a tour around Berk as soon as she was strong enough. Toothless agree, and smiled. He knew Meatlug would be an excellent guide.
After the brief meeting with the newest member of the pack, Toothless went back to the Meade Hall. Hiccup was already looking for him. And together they went to check on Astrid, to see how the defenders around the back of the village had been so far.
Astrid had set up some traps and made some fail paths around the forest. Toothless and Hiccup immediately went to work. They cleared the path, cut some trees and built more traps.
However, as they worked, Toothless couldn't stop wondering about what Cloudjumper had for him. He couldn't wait until the night arrive.
Hi! I'm sorry that it took me longer than usual to update this. No one is to blame but me ;w;
By the way, the next chapter will have some smut... ^^
