A/N: We're at about that half-way mark, maybe closer, to being done with this fic ^_^ Also, I have some art of Alekt and his horse, Sangrida, on DA which is linked on my profile page here on FFN, if anyone wants to go and check it out~

Learning from the Masters
A How To Train Your Dragon Fanfiction
Based of Le'Letha's "Nightfall"

What met Hiccup's senses at first was not the becoming-familiar scene of light poking in through openings between metal branches or the sounds of his Toothless-heart-of-mine crooning socially at him or the mixed smell of pfikingr and fire and nearby dragons and stone and a faint tinge of salty water on the breeze or the unmoving ground of a cold metal floor.

It was the darkness of something that clung to his face and a cracking-creaking noise like swaying trees and the overpowering smell of wet wood and pfikingr and salt and fish as he felt the ground pitch and sway in nauseating tandem beneath him.

His head felt strange tired blurry and despite how much he tried to search his memory he couldn't remember anything after eating another fish that the E-e-kTT had brought him that tasted kind of strange but not bad-strange and being overcome by sudden exhaustion that wouldn't let go despite that he tried not to sleep.

His front paws were still bound together, but instead of in front of him so he could still mostly use them they were behind his back and left him feeling more vulnerable than ever and he had to resist whimpering because he could not see and he could not move well and did not know where he was or what had happened or what was going on.

And then it hit him that he doesn't know if he's alone but he knows he doesn't smell dragons at all and he mewled out plaintatively Toothless? Where Toothless here yes?

He wasn't answered and the same strange sickshiveringcoldnotcold feeling from the first night he and Toothless had been forced apart was hitting him like a wave all over again and making him tremble but he had been getting kind-of used to being apart and been able to get rid of the bad shivering and heart-cold knowing that his Toothless-minelove was not hurt and they were still close enough to talk and reassure each other and he yearned to be physically close to his other half but he could tolerate their seperateness somewhat so long as he and his other and the dragons were not being hurt.

This time was different and far worse. Toothless was nowhere to be heard or smelled or seen and Hiccup had no idea at all what had happened to him and if he was alive or hurt or even killed or left somewhere without him but E-e-kTT had promised that he would not hurt dragons but even dragons lied so pfikingr could lie too and what was to say it had not been a lie and Hiccup had simply been foolish reckless bad dumb to believe him?

Toothless had good ears and Hiccup thought he could have answered but he tried again louder, crying out Toothless here love here where you me here safe not hurt yes Toothless-love mine here!

Still there was no answer and the bad feeling in him grew and he struggled and writhed and cried out and breathed too fast and too hard until his head swam dizzingly so he had to stop and then tried again when his head felt less light and he didn't stop again even when his throat started to ache because he was COMPLETELY alone without his other half there and could not hear or smell or taste or see him in a strange place he didn't know and did not know if his Toothless-self needed him or not and E-e-kTT had really just been bad lie tricky hurt separate bad pfikingr take Toothless-love bad lie lie enemy and he and his other heart could not live separate because they had to be TOGETHER and it was wrong not to be because they were never apart and were not meant to be apart and always, always, ALWAYS, ALWAYS together no matter what badness happened and it felt like his neck was in a hanging-holding trap so that he could scarcely breathe and it was all, too, MUCH.

He froze as the ground jolted him slightly and there were many, many scraping noises from beneath him like tens of dragons scratching from beneath him and he tried to breathe though it hurt to try and listen to all the scratching and rolling of the ground in anxiety-ridden curiosity and called out again for Toothless but neither his dragon-half nor any other dragons answered him and the ground suddenly stopped moving and there were loud steps and odd screeching noises like those of the cage doors that Hiccup had learned to recognize and grabbing of above his front paws so that he was lifted off the ground and he knew the smell and sound of pfikingr and snarled and fought anew and blindly tried to bite the rough pfikingr paws that pulled him forward from each side but he couldn't find flesh.

The stuffy wet-wood air became more clear and he could feel wind and faint sunlight on his fur and chattered nervous worry scared strange where confused alert frightened alone Toothless gone nervous bad very bad.

He heard a sound now that was finally familiar, that stonesick voice of E-e-kTT from not far, speaking in the pfikingr tongue, and then the face-clinging thing came off and Hiccup had to squint and blink as his eyes adjusted to the sudden onslight of light and open sky and rocky coast and trees that were not familiar to him and E-e-kTT watching him in that way that made it impossible to read any sort of feeling or thoughts off him like he could with most everything else that spoke with their eyes and body and tone.

The binding-things came off of his front paws and he wasted not a second in flinging himself away from the pfikingr once he was partially free and whirled and snarled and looked for his dragon-half but Toothless was nowhere to be seen.

He didn't get to think on it long because something came flying towards him and he ducked back and eyed his claws that sat now in front of him and then to E-e-kTT who was watching him stone-faced.

Hiccup wasted no time in taking those and slipping them on and it was so good to be free of cages and binding-things and have his claws back but he was still without Toothless so nothing was really alright and not much better than before at all.

Toothless where take you no hurt better not where love tricky liar enemy where Toothless-mine where! he demanded angrily but E-e-kTT was not listening and turned to say something to his other pfikingr and made Hiccup even more anxious-furious and the dragon-man let out a roar and leapt at him and pushed him into the rock. E-e-kTT did not go down easily and rolled him over and flipped Hiccup through the air with his feet and was back to his own even before Hiccup was.

The dragon-man's eyes only briefly flitted to the side but the other pfikingr did not move to attack though they looked as if they wanted to and why that was Hiccup had no idea unless they thought this was an Alpha's challenge because so far it seemed like E-e-kTT was the Alpha – Chfff? – of these pfikingr even though he was much smaller and younger and lighter than any of them but Hiccup had learned both from experience and from watching that he was cleverer and quicker and more skilled and could even talk almost-dragon a little bit so maybe that was how he was their Alpha whereas most other pfikingr were clumsy and slow and not very smart at all and could not speak even close to right so Hiccup would have to be extra careful but he would still not back down because he was still a dragon and one that could take on a Queen and challenge a pfikingr Alpha and he was not afraid!

They circled a few steps, watching each other, but Hiccup was frustratedly unable to read E-e-kTT's face for his intentions while he felt like a hatchling trying to pretend it was a hunter stalking its mothers tail because he knew he could not make himself unmoving like stone in the same way and the other was too good at reading things without being read.

Hiccup finally moved one way, but it was a feint, and he quickly tried to strike the other direction, both of them tumbling over the ground again, over, and over, and over so that the world spun and every move he tried to make E-e-kTT reciprocated and adapted to it but Hiccup still came out on top and pinned the pfikingr into the stone with his claws positioned precariously to finish the pfikingr by the neck if he had to but at some point in their tumble E-e-kTT had pulled his long sharp-claw and had it placed just as close to the vulnerable spot of Hiccup's own throat so that both had each other in a tricky tied position.

All it would take for either one of them to claim victory was to twitch just a little faster than the other, but as soon as Hiccup moved even the most miniscule degree, so did E-e-kTT, but no further than Hiccup did. The dragon-man drew a single bead of red from the surface-flesh, and so did E-e-kTT, and they sat like that for a moment staring at each other as Hiccup tried to figure out what to do and thought maybe the young Chfff was trying to figure out what to do too but he couldn't tell past those barricaded blue eyes.

Where Toothless-love where you take bad liar trapping pfikingr where tell now!

E-e-kTT finally spoke to him now rather than at the others and Hiccup could make out 'Toothless' but nothing else and found himself infuriated now more than ever that he could not understand the pfikingr and the pfikingr could not speak right so that he could understand them properly. The man continued to say something and Hiccup also caught 'dragon' in there somewhere as the man turned his eyes toward the top of his head to look somewhere else and Hiccup hesitated a moment before slowly following his eyes into the trees.

His attention was only diverted for half a second, but it was enough for E-e-kTT to move and throw him off and Hiccup howled rage as he flipped from his back onto his feet again and bared his claws and teeth towards the human, but E-e-kTT had lost interest in fighting him, if he had ever had it at all, and instead looked at him expectantly and motioned towards the trees with his head and walked away and turned his back which was strange and crazy and reckless but E-e-kTT had never really made much sense even by pfikingr standards of nonsense.

With great wariness, Hiccup followed into the tree-line from a distance and spared a glance back but it was only him and E-e-kTT and the others did not look as though they would follow so he focused mainly on following and seeing where the Chfff was trying to take him and hoping maybe it was to Toothless though for what reason or why from the boat and not the cave they had started in he had no idea unless they had somehow moved everything to someplace else and somehow Hiccup had not wakened to notice.

E-e-kTT stopped just ahead of him and made a strange sound that wasn't pfikingr or dragon but that Hiccup vaguely knew, three sort of croaking barks, and then was answered by something from far away just before Hiccup saw the black bird that sometimes followed and perched on and ate with E-e-kTT take flight from the shadow of a fir branch.

E-e-kTT followed it and Hiccup began to follow as well though every sense was trained and he could never remember being quite this anxious or uncertain because he had never gone hunting or prowling or anywhere at all without his Toothless there and it was strange and wrong and he did not like it at all and would rather fight many, many Queens or Alphas all at once so long as he could be with his Toothless-self than to be without him.

They came to a tall rock wall that Hiccup did not know and E-e-kTT said something in a mix of black-bird noises and pfikingr and watched the bird fly up the rock and back and forth before landing somewhere.

E-e-kTT finally looked at him and Hiccup tensed warily with no idea what was to come but then the human jerked his head upward and flexed his hands over the black sharp-claws and started to use the hooked weapons to catch crags and ledges the same way Hiccup often used his dragon-gloves and claws and started to heave himself up the cliff.

Hiccup eyed it uncertainly and made a noise of question follow there Toothless-mine follow maybe go there maybe yes? but E-e-kTT did not answer him, probably for lack of understanding, and Hiccup growled no listen frustration bad distrust liar bad pfikingr, but he followed because he still held out hope that Toothless would be there and as they climbed further Hiccup could smell a mix of pfikingr and dragon and his hopes rose so he climbed harder and faster and reached the mouth of a cave at about the same time as E-e-kTT did where the bird waited for them.

Hiccup was uncertain about going forward into the darkness or where the human was leading him but the second he started to make a noise to call for Toothless the pfikingr smacked him in the side with the not-sharp side of the sharp-claw and made Hiccup jump with a snarl as the man gave him a look he thought he could read as be quiet!

Hiccup was more confused than ever when the pfikingr prowled forward quietly in a way that he immediately recognized as hunting but he had been told that they did not hunt dragons and did not know what else it could be but he followed along quietly through the darkness which was hard to see in but his eyes soon adjusted just enough to follow E-e-kTT through the darkness.

Why hunt why promised no dragon hunting why confused worried lied? E-e-kTT only hissed near-silent at him and Hiccup stopped trying to find out why or what they were hunting and figured he would find out soon and if it was dragons then he could probably warn them or kill the pfikingr if necessary but for now he would listen and watch.

He could still smell the scent of human and dragon mixed together but it was stronger now then before and while it was the smell of dragons it was not the smell of ones he knew and there was a sense of hurt and blood in it that made the fur on his head prickle uneasily and he hoped not to find Toothless there at the same time desperately wishing his needed other half were here with him because he did not like to feel unknowing and vulnerable and alone and certainly not with a pfikingr that was dangerous and clever and quick enough to best him alone but with Toothless he was unstoppable and he wished so very very much to have his other self here now so much that it physically hurt.

E-e-kTT paused and straightened up as the cave bent to the side and there was the faintest flicker of light to see by. The man peered his head around the corner and motioned for Hiccup to stay back with his weapon before creeping around the corner in a low slink. Curious and worried of what the pfikingr might be hunting, Hiccup only went far enough to see around the corner to where there was a pfikingr standing somewhat further down that did not seem to notice them and only now did Hiccup realize that E-e-kTT was hunting that pfikingr. And that only made him more confused.

He watched in fascination as E-e-kTT prowled and ducked through the darkness and behind crags silently and skillfully, more stealthily practiced than he had ever seen a pfikingr be. Much of the time pfikingr were loud and clumsy and did not hide terribly well.

E-e-kTT came right up behind the other pfikingr easily without detection, so close that one step back would have them trip over him, and ended them with only a muffled noise and a quick slash of his sharp-claw at their throat. It was strange and astonishing and perhaps a little horrifying watching a human kill another in that way. He knew that sometimes pfikingr fought and killed each other as well as dragons and wild animals but he had never seem them do so like this. So efficiently and quietly.

E-e-kTT lingered over them for a moment and made sure they were truly dead before motioning for Hiccup to follow him further down the cave. When he did, he glanced over the body in passing and confirmed for himself that it had only taken one clean strike to the vulnerable spot on his neck and he knew that if E-e-kTT had really wanted to he probably could have done the same to Hiccup many times over by now but for some reason he did not see Hiccup or the dragons as enemies like most pfikingr and he was not sure at this point what about him was stranger.

The smell and now sounds of pfikingr activity and dragons and heat and soot and blood was stronger and E-e-kTT crouched onto his belly once they reached the ledge and Hiccup followed him. This cave was larger. It was not much more wide, at the bottom, but it panned out wider at the top where they were and went deeper, with many overhanging ledges.

Below, pfikingr milled about, but there were many more of them than there were in E-e-kTT's own stone-nest, and there were more things. Pits of heat with lumps of metal and sharp-claws and heavy-striking things, long wood eating-places, pens with animals that pfikingr raised and sometimes dragons carried away to eat(not like the preynoprey things but actual prey-things), traps, and large dragon-cages that had dragons in them.

When Hiccup squinted and leaned and tried to look closer though, he could see and smell faintly that these dragons were not kept nicely the way E-e-kTT kept trapped dragons. They were what Hiccup was most used to seeing with dragon-trappers in that their catches were tired and weak and not cleaned after and sick and had torn wings and missing limbs and bad wounds and they did not shy back only with confusion and fear that came out of strangeness and uncertainty but coiled and curled and splayed in a way that Hiccup intimately knew was because they were suffering.

Hiccup snarled under his breath and crouched on the ledge in a leaping-ready kind of way and wanted to descend down and do something but he still knew he did not have Toothless with him and that it would be too reckless even for him to do such without his partner with him.

He was aware of E-e-kTT watching him and he could almost hear Toothless in his head reprimanding no reckless crazy no dangerous silly you always alert bad stay no even if the dragon was not there to scold him from doing it.

E-e-kTT shifted next to him and pulled out paper and something to draw with, craning his head out and his eyes flicking from one area to another in calculation before he began to draw and look and draw again. Hiccup recognized it as the cave from one angle and when the other was done he flipped that paper to the bottom and drew it again but in a different way, very roughly and quickly.

When he had filled another page he tucked them away into hiding again and crawled backward and onto his feet, turning to leave the same way they had come in. He did not say or motion but Hiccup still knew he was to follow though their purpose for coming was a mystery to the dragon-man. Why come here to see trapped and hurt dragons of other pfikingr and then make drawings and simply leave again?

Once again, it made little sense to him.

As they left, the pfikingr picked the dead one onto his back and carried them out, rather than leaving them behind. It was another thing that didn't make sense to him, at first. When they came into open air, he carelessly tossed the body down, which clattered across the rocks to the bottom, and then swiveled around and descended himself carefully.

Hiccup hesitated and looked between the cave and E-e-kTT, not sure whether to follow or stay, or if he was meant to do something, or if Toothless might be amongst those dragons somewhere even though he had not seen him. But why else were he and the dragon separated?

He didn't think he would get a proper answer, but he was anxiety-ridden and angry and desperate to know so he tried again despite that he was sure it was useless to do so.

Where Toothless where alive safe yes please Toothless need where?

To his disbelief, he got an answer. It was somewhat of a mix of dragon and pfikingr speech, but he understood it perfectly.

"Going to Toothless," he answered with a motion of his head to follow, since his hands and sharp-claws were occupied with finding purchase on the stone. The confirmation that his dragon was alive was enough to excite Hiccup into following quickly. He hoped that it meant his other was also unharmed, but he would find out once they found him.

But he was still alive and they were going to him and for the moment that was enough to spur him on.