Memories: Journey Home

Chapter 10: Finding the Nest

Toothless growled. "What's your problem?!"

The dragon sneered. "I see that your Alpha control doesn't last very long." He shot at Toothless again, this time the Alpha had a hard time maneuvering passed the shot.

Another shot came at him from behind.

From a different dragon.

Toothless turned around, nearly knocking the humans off his back. He glanced inside the trees, noticing a shadow of some kind hiding in there. Toothless tried to keep his eyes on the ivory dragon, but this new one was taking his attention off him.

"Another one?" Hiccup asked.

The dragon in the trees hissed. Toothless could not tell who it was, or what color her scales were, but he knew from her growls that he was from his old herd. "So… you have come back, Blackfoot." She fired another shot, which Toothless was ready for. "You have some nerve for returning after what happened."

"It wasn't my fault!" Toothless insisted. "You know that!"

"Right, because you were too much of a coward to fight for what you could have had," the dragon growled. She stuck her head out, to reveal her coloring: Phthalo green, which blended well in her environment of the trees in the night. Toothless could tell that she was used to hiding in the trees, due to how easily she camouflaged in the forest. "Go back to your herd, Blackfoot. You're better off away from here."

Toothless frowned. "You have no idea what I am, do you?" he asked.

"I do know who you are. You're the runt of our herd from many winters ago," the phthalo green dragon hissed. "And my mate banished you from ever entering this herd again, or did it not designate in that stupid head of yours?"

Toothless recalled to his childhood, a time when he was called Blackfoot, to the bully dragon that looked like the ivory dragon in front of him. The one with the yellow eyes. The one who… who banished him years ago. Toothless remembered how the dragon bested him… besting him in a simple fight.

"It did," Toothless stated. "And I must say… I'm surprised that your mate is still the Alpha of this worn out herd…"

Both of the feral dragons laughed.

"And what makes your herd better than a Night Fury one?" she asked.

"I beat a Bewilderbeast," Toothless said, smiling. "Has the Alpha ever done that?"

Both of the dragons glanced at each other in amazement. Toothless wished that Stormfly was there to see the look of utter shock written on the dragons' faces. Or even better... Wodensfang.

"You-you didn't say you beat a Bewilderbeast!" the ivory Night Fury stuttered. "I-I thought you were just some Alpha that my brother coule easily beat!"

The other feral dragon growled, but there was a sense of fear in her voice. "Why are you coming back?" she asked. She glanced at Hiccup and Astrid. "And with humans on your back?"

"They mean no harm," Toothless insisted. "If you let me go to the nest, then I'll explain everything."

"How do we not know that you won't just take over our nest?" the female asked, flying closer to the ivory dragon.

"And I have no intentions on taking over your herd," Toothless promised. He was truthful; he lived long enough away from the Night Furies that he no longer wanted to associate with them. "I only want to show my humans to the Night Furies, and to see the Wodensfang."

And Bright Eyes, he thought to himself.

The two feral dragons glanced at each other once more. Toothless was not entirely sure what they were thinking, but he had a fairly good idea that it was something very… unpleasant. He glanced up at himself, where Hiccup and Astrid were talking about… naming the dragons? He was not entirely sure. Well, they aren't going to be too much help, are they?

"Alright," the female dragon groaned. "I will have to speak to the Alpha… if he will listen to me…"

Toothless could only smile in the progress that he made. I guess I don't need to use this Alpha thing, after all.

Eight years ago….

"Give her a name," Blackfoot insisted.

The Wodensfang shrugged. "Perhaps in the future. I don't want to just bombard her with something that she may not want to have." He purred. "Besides, I think it's a little too early to assume that someone as… well, pretty, as she, would want a name."

"Don't be silly, Papa," Blackfoot said, through a chuckle, "It can be something simple, like how you call me Little One."

Blackfoot and Wodensfang were sitting together near the dragon cave, where the old dragon had the flowers by his feet. For what has seemed to go on for days now… Blackfoot had been trying to convince the Wodensfang to meet with Bright Eyes' aunt. It was the younger dragon's personal touch to give the old female dragon a name as well.

The old dragon, however, was not being cooperative.

"It's not that simple, though," Wodensfang insisted. "You asked Bright Eyes if she liked the name, and she was fine with it. However, she is young. The older generation may not take too kindly with such things."

Blackfoot grumbled. Did the older dragons have to be so… backwards, and not willing to change? What was wrong with having a name? He never could understand. "Well, at least call her something that matches her scales…"

"What, like Flower?" Wodensfang said, under his breath.

"Wait! That's a good name!" Blackfoot exclaimed. "She loves these flowers, so it makes sense!"

Wodensfang rolled his eyes. "If it makes you happy, I'll talk to her…" He picked up the flowers in his mouth. "But if you want to impress females, this is how you do it." With that, the dragon got up and walked over to the female.

Blackfoot smiled, and hid behind some bushes.

Wodensfang inched closer to the dragon, with the flowers safely between his front teeth. He sighed at first, then he released a "hem, hem", as gently as he could. However, being a male, it came out gruffier that what Blackfoot assumed he expected.

"Oh… hello," the female said.

Blackfoot grinned from behind the bushes. The old dragon won't know what hit him…

"I'm terribly sorry for interrupting you," Wodensfang said, placing the flowers down near her. "You see, my son is insistent that I have a conversation with you, if that is alright." He bowed his head respectfully. "If a beautiful dragon such as yourself is alright with that."

Blackfoot's jaw almost dropped. In all his years knowing the Wodensfang, he never knew that he could speak so… elegantly with a female. So why could he not hold down a mate?

"Why, thank you, sir," Flower said, purring slightly. She moved her head to the flowers and sniffed them quietly. "Goodness, these are my favourite! How did you know?"

Wodensfang chuckled. "Well, let's just say I had a little bird tell me."

"A little bird?" Flower asked, with a chuckle. "What type of bird was it?" she asked, looking at where Blackfoot was hiding. The teen bent down lower in the bushes. "I bet it was a teenaged one."

Wodensfang chuckled again. "I believe so."

"Well, you are welcome to sit with me," Flower said, gesturing to beside her. "It's been some time that I've had some male company, to be completely honest."

The older male nodded in agreement. "And I can't say that I've wooed many females in my younger years," he admitted, sitting down beside her. A low crack was heard from his side. "Oh dear… there goes my side again." He groaned in annoyance.

"Your side gets like that, too?" Flower asked. She shifted slightly, and a crack was released from her side as well. "It must be the old age, I think. It's not like we all can live pass two hundred winters, right?"

"Two hundred?" Wodensfang asked, surprised. "I would have taken you for forty winters."

There was blush from Flower. "You really think so?" she asked, purring again.

Wow. He really is good, Blackfoot thought to himself.

"Considering that I've seen nearly three hundred and fourteen winters," Wodensfang said, "I know how it is to feel old."

"You don't look any older than fifty, if it makes you feel better," Flower said, jokingly. "And very handsome, to be honest."

Wodensfang looked as though he was close to blushing. "My dear… as nice as it is to flirt… I must be honest with you."

"Oh?" Flower asked, confused.

"Well, it has to do with your niece," Wodensfang said. "She is around the same age as my son, and, well, I believe that the two of them like each other."

Blackfoot's mind started to spin. Wait… what's he doing with this?

It wasn't supposed to be like this! It was Woddie who was supposed to be falling in love, not him! Blackfoot did not have those kinds of feelings for Bright Eyes, even though she was extremely pretty, and-

He shook his head, and listened to the two old dragons talk.

Flower nodded, as well. "Technically, she is more like a distant niece… my sister's granddaughter. However… I understand what you mean." She chuckled. "It would mean something completely different if we were trying to keep the population of the Night Furies going, and that we could both still produce offspring."

"Excellent point," Wodensfang agreed. "However, it doesn't mean that my son and Bright Eyes-I mean, your niece, can't have a little family of their own, right?"

Flower laughed lightly. "Of course. Is this the official story I should tell her?"

"Perhaps it's not the best time to push this on them…" Wodensfang cautioned. "I… I don't want him to grow up too fast."

Blackfoot bowed his head down. Perhaps I should not have listened to their conversation. As quietly as he could, he left the bush and darted to as far away as the Wodensfang and Flower as he could.

It was the only thing he could clearly think of.

It had been some time that the dragons stopped fighting. Hiccup could only have assumed that the Night Furies were now showing Toothless over to the nest. Only because he had no idea how to understand the dragon dialect. If only I could learn how to speak… then it would be easier to understand these dragons.

So for the present, and very unsure time, Hiccup decided to distract himself. He watched as the two distinctively different shades of scales on the two feral dragons fly casually ahead of Toothless, as though he was of unimportance to them.

They need a name… they look like they could…

"I think I want to name that green one," Hiccup said, almost out-of-the-blue.

Astrid rolled her eyes. Her arms were still clutched around his waist. "Why do I have a feeling that you already have a name for it?"

"Well, it was in the trees, right? And it was spying on us and waiting to hit us," Hiccup explained, almost not caring about her comment. "I think we should name it Tree Scout."

Astrid was about to protest, but her eyes widened in the dark. "Wait… that actually isn't a bad name. It's kind of… good!" she said.

"Why are you so surprised?" Hiccup asked his wife.

"Let's see… Itchy Armpit….Toothless…" Hiccup chuckled. Right… he wasn't the best at naming things… but Tree Scout was the best thing he thought of. "Tree Scout is actually the most normal name that you could come up with…."

"What about Sharpshot?" Hiccup asked. "I think that name, at least, deserves some credit."

Astrid nodded, chuckling. "Alright, I'll give you that one, babe."

"And you can name the other one, if you'd like," Hiccup suggested. He was kind of curious of what she could think of to name the male feral dragon.

"Is this why we went on this trip, so you can just name the Night Furies?" Astrid asked, with a smile.

"Hey!" Hiccup said. "There was more a reason for having this trip…" he glanced down at Toothless, who was still following Tree Scout and the feral dragon. "We came here to find Toothless' family."

Astrid nodded in agreement. "Yes, and how Stryker here literally came out of nowhere and beat us to the punch," she said, gesturing to the ivory dragon.

"Stryker?" Hiccup asked, testing the name out. Hmm... it wasn't terrible... and it was far better than some of the names that the other dragon riders came up with, such as Meatlug, Barf, Belch…

"Why not? He did strike at us. "Astrid said, shrugging her shoulders. "Sounds good, right?"

Hiccup nodded. Now… Tree Scout doesn't sound as awesome… Stryker sounded like a Night Fury name, for sure. However, Hiccup smiled. He knew he wasn't good at names at all, so that's why he was happy that his wife was with him. Besides, there will be other dragons to name….

"Uh… Hiccup?" Astrid asked.

Hiccup frowned, and followed to where Astrid was pointing. The dragons ahead of them were traveling deeper into the woods, and making tighter turns. Hiccup held onto Toothless' reigns tightly, while Astrid held Hiccup. Both Vikings felt Toothless make the tight turns as well, and Hiccup found Toothless' fins reappearing. Nice work, bud.

It seemed that the edges kept on getting tighter, as the three dragons traveled deeper in the forest. Hiccup no longer recognized this part, as caves and small mountains circled them. Stryker and Tree Scout kept their distances from Toothless, although the pair continuously looked behind them.

Through their flight, Hiccup could hear the dragons growling at each other, and wondered what they were saying.

After what seemed like hours, despite what the sky told them (the sky was a little lighter, as it dawned closer to morning), Toothless and the other two dragons made a tight turn to a large area. It was a flat surface, with some trees, and placed high in the rocks beside a rather large cave. Hiccup could already tell that it was well protected, due to the tight turns of the hidden rocks and mountains.

Stryker landed first, followed by Tree Scout. Both dragons waited until Toothless landed.

"Whoa," Hiccup said, taking in the sights around him. The flat surface he was on… it was rather large. Enough to home a whole herd of dragons, if it could support them.

He slowly got off Toothless.

Stryker bent down and growled.

"No, no. It's okay," Hiccup promised, as Astrid got off the dragon. He reached for his sword, and quickly ignighted Inferno. For good measures, he began to swing it around him. Both Stryker and Tree Scout's eyes went big, as they followed the dancing flame. "Hey, you like that, eh?"

Toothless rolled his eyes, but he stayed close to Hiccup.

Stryker slowly walked up to Hiccup. Toothless released a warning growl.

"It's okay, bud," Hiccup assured his best friend. He held his hand out to Stryker, and allowed the dragon to sniff at it. The dragon sneered slightly, before Hiccup turned away. He could feel, almost instantly, that Stryker rested his face against Hiccup's hand. Hiccup looked at the dragon. "There you go, Stryker. That's it."

The dragon stared at him in confusion.

"Stryker. It's you name now." Stryker said nothing, sitting down and looking at Hiccup with large blue eyes. Hiccup had to admit, it was adorable. He looked at Toothless. "Is there any way you can explain to him….?"

Begrudgingly, Toothless released soft growls at Stryker. The bigger dragon, and yes, Hiccup realized that Toothless was smaller than Stryker, sniffed his nose a little, and then bowed his head to Hiccup respectfully.

"Oh my gods…" Astrid said. "Hiccup, do you see this?"

Hiccup stared at around him. There... there were dragons everywhere around him.

They all looked at him, both in curiosity and in interest. Some stayed in a small group, staring at him and Astrid in amazement. Not one moved for the longest time. Perhaps it took hours, days… to even move or flinch.

It was a variety of them. Some had darker scales than others, while some had brighter scales that stood out. Hiccup recognized that the dragons had various shades of black… not just one colour. And their eyes… some had blue, yellow, while only a couple had green. However, their bodies were recognizable: the batlike wings, the ears, the menacing retractable teeth….

Hiccup was surrounded by Night Furies.

Finally! They found the nest!

Now, all we have to see is Wodensfang and Bright Eyes, right? XD

You're all going to be mad, since I've lost the original outline, so I'm going by memory here. I hope that you're not too mad that I am taking forever to write this…

Oh, and you've noticed that I've changed the name to "Memories: Journey Home"? Well, yea. I've changed it lol.

Please review :) And thank you for your patience.