Ch.14
The morning found Hiccup wrapped in thick furs under a starless black sky—or what Hiccup thought was a starless black sky. A minute later the heavens moved. A streak of light crept in to reveal the night-sky was, in fact, the underside of one of Toothless's wings. Toothless was quick to move, forcing Hiccup to come to terms with the new day; weather and all. It took him a second to remember why he'd been sleeping under his dragon's wing wrapped in furs, and then it hit him. "Was that necessary?" Hiccup said rubbing his left shoulder where Astrid had tossed a pebble. "Stormfly thought so," Astrid said patting her dragon on the muzzle. "Hiccup, we found Toothless, and it's daylight. Let's head back. This island feels wrong. Stormfly keeps nervously checking the forest." Hiccup nodded, he knew several reasons why Stormfly would feel very uneasy on the island. He looked to his dragon eager to leave as well.
"Toothless you ready bud?" Toothless, however, was not bubbling with enthusiasm, as Hiccup expected. "Toothless, that Monstrous Nightmare isn't going to follow us to Berk." This statement did nothing to change his dragons somber attitude. "Toothless, is it something else?" Hiccup kneeled looking his dragon in the eyes. Toothless blinked and looked away, shaking off Hiccup's gaze. "I—I, I'm sorry Eletra, I'll come back for you. I promise." Toothless whispered to himself. Toothless made his best attempt to look happy and smiled at Hiccup. "I'll meet you in the air Hiccup, don't be too long." As climbed onto what remained of his saddle he thought about how Toothless had reacted to leaving. He couldn't get over the strange feeling that his dragon didn't want to leave the island. "Did he find something? Unfinished business maybe?" Hiccup's thoughts whirled trying to find an answer, after running thru a few possibilities Hiccup brushed the thoughts aside and looked at the sky. "C'mon bud, let's go home. "
"What's bothering that dragon? How could Hiccup not see the torment on Toothless's face?" Stormfly's curiosity didn't have to wait long, as Toothless and Hiccup were quick to follow. "Toothless why do you want to stay here on this island? Alone I might add." Toothless felt a sigh of relief that Eletra had not yet been discovered, he wasn't sure yet how to introduce her to Berk. "Do I tell her? What should I say?" Toothless thought as Stormfly eyed him expectantly. "I—I" Toothless paused before continuing trying to find the right words. "You love your younglings, right?" Stormfly was taken aback by such a direct question. "yes, of course, I love them, how could I not?" Toothless continued, "How did you feel seeing them for the first time?" "Toothless, how is this at all related to what I asked?" "Humor me." Stormfly sighed, "It was the best feeling I've ever had, overwhelming joy and happiness. Now answer my question!" "is something wrong girl?" Astrid felt Stormfly tense; there was no immediate danger, so Astrid quickly resumed her conversation with Hiccup.
Stormfly was happy Astrid had gone back to her conversation leaving Toothless on the hook to answer her. "That's how I felt on that island." Stormfly let out a surprised squawk earning Astrid's full attention believing her dragon had found danger close-by. "Stormfly, what is it?" Stormfly however, tried very hard to act normal and relaxed. "Hiccup, does Stormfly look alright to you?" "She looks tense, but otherwise, yeah, she looks fine." Hiccup observed while keeping a tight grip on Toothless. "But you were alone on that island! Toothless do you realize what you are saying." Stormfly was now completely invested in the conversation and nearly forgot Astrid was there. "I met another Night Fury; she saved my life. I've been asleep until three days ago. She healed me." Stormfly fell silent upon hearing this news. "A female Night Fury? Toothless found a Night Fury? A female? Toothless fell in love with a Night Fury? Toothless fell in love? TOOTHLESS IS IN LOVE?!" This was all Stormfly could think, the conversation ended there with Stormfly astonished.
"Hiccup, is Toothless acting strange? Stormfly is not acting like herself at all. She seems—in shock." Astrid asked bewildered by the jerky and surprised movements coming from her dragon. "Yeah, I got the feeling he didn't want to leave that island. I didn't see anything that might make him want to stay." "Did you see anything when you rescued me?" he asked looking at Astrid. "Nope, maybe Toothless wasn't as lost as you on that island." Hiccup gave Astrid a puzzled look but said nothing."Hiccup, you were on Berk for several days before managing to get away to rescue Toothless." Hiccup received a displeased snort from Toothless before Astrid could continue. "Why didn't you think to bring an older tail assembly in case Toothless's was damaged?" "ugh, Astrid we just went over this. Why do you want to remind that I simply forgot". "because Toothless is struggling to stay in the air. We should land and allow him to rest." It was true. Toothless was having to put significantly more effort into flying than normal due to his destroyed and nearly unusable tail-fin. Astrid had started to look for places to land when Hiccup spoke up again. "Astrid, if we do land, it's going to be much harder for Toothless to take off again, it might be easier just to keep going and rest at Berk." Toothless was quick to slap Hiccup with an earflap. "OW!" Toothless grumbled but after thinking it over agreed and gave a grudgingly kept flying.
It was mid-day when Hiccup and Astrid arrived back on Berk, Toothless did not know what to feel, happiness to be home, sadness for leaving Eletra or exhaustion from having to correct his flight pattern so often on the way back to Berk. "Hiccup, you probably should take what's left of Toothless's saddle with you to the forge, it won't do any good on Toothless now." Astrid noted as the pair neared Hiccup's house. "hold still bud, just got to get this off you. I wonder how it got damaged like this?" Hiccup wondered as he removed the various apparatuses keeping the saddle on Toothless. When Hiccup had removed all the equipment, Toothless was saddened. "At least with that on, I had a chance to return to Eletra." This sadness did not go unnoticed by Hiccup, feeling as if all of Toothless's discomfort was because of his actions, Hiccup vanished into his house. Toothless looked at the door puzzled, "not even a goodbye? Must've hit his head when we crashed." Several long minutes later Hiccup returned with an older, unfinished tail-fin. "Toothless, you'll have to use this until I can make you a new tailfin. It's the only one I could find; I must've dismantled the others."
"Wait, is that? No, It couldn't be, I destroyed that tailfin years ago, but I've never seen this tailfin." Hiccup proceeded to secure the unfamiliar tailfin In place before his dragon realized which tailfin it was. Toothless looked for Stormfly to ask her opinion of the tailfin but Astrid and Stormfly had left. "Toothless, I've got it laced up for you. I don't know how well this will work, I've had to make some changes over the years. Sorry I never showed you this tailfin, I didn't want you to destroy it like the first one". Rasing his tailfin, he found it was another autonomous tailfin, quite basic in functionality and design much like his original that proved such an idea was possible. "With this—I—I could return to Eletra." Toothless gave Hiccup a grin and ran off into the forest. Hiccup called after him but didn't follow, he had work to be done at the forge and was much too slow to run after his dragon.
Cloudjumper found Toothless in the late afternoon sun sitting on a cliff overlooking the sea. "Toothless? I heard you'd returned." He looked at Cloudjumper glad to see a friend that he could talk with in confidence. "You miss her? What's she like?" Toothless nearly fell over in shock. "How—how did you find out?" Toothless was beginning to regret telling Stormfly about Eletra, even vaguely. "Valka was talking to me about Hiccup thinking you didn't want to come back and he wasn't sure why. Here I find you staring longingly into the horizon. I assume the island is this direction then?" "How did you know? That's a lot of assumptions" Toothless said trying to mask his surprise. "Stormfly is a terrible liar," Cloudjumper admitted, pleased with the reaction he'd received.
Toothless relaxed realizing Cloudjumper had found out from Stormfly and not a pile of assumptions, for his reaction had most certainly confirmed them all. "She told you? I should've not said anything. I don't want this getting around just yet I'm afraid she'd attract a lot of unwanted attention." "She told me that you'd found a female Night Fury." Toothless thought this over deciding whether to fill in the details or not for the Stormcutter. "Yes, I do miss her, I didn't get a chance to ask her to be my mate, or even tell her that I was leaving, I just—left." Toothless looked at the ground ashamed. "Look at you. You're a Night Fury, Toothless the Alpha, yet you sit here on this cliff and lament what could've been." Toothless realized Cloudjumper was right, "thank you, I know what I need to do." "You're—" but Toothless leaped off the cliff and plummeted instantly, he appeared a few seconds later near sea level and quickly heading for the horizon. "—welcome…be safe Alpha." Cloudjumper said, stunned by how quickly Toothless reacted to his pep talk. "That went well." He thought as he watched Toothless disappear into the horizon.
"Birds? Was it birds? I could've sworn it was.." Eletra was found herself in a meadow which wasn't unusual, but the sound she heard was unusual. "It's not possible," She said staring up at a tree making very dragon-like noises. She blinked and looked again to find that three Night Fury hatchlings were staring at her expectantly. "WHAT!" Eletra jumped back shaken. "LOKI WHAT DEVILRY IS THIS!?" Eletra shouted aghast. Within seconds the hatchlings vanished in a small fireball. The fireball smoldered, and soon began to ooze out of the nest, Eletra watched in horror as everything around her slowly morphed into flames. She desperately looked for a way out, "You will not escape again." Eletra's eyes shot open at this, and she breathed a sigh of relief when she realized it was nothing but a dream. Suddenly there was a sickening crack from outside, followed by the sound of something large tumbling down the mountainside. "what?" it was then Eletra noticed the trademark fire slime of the Monstrous Nightmare. "I hope you like your Monstrous Nightmares burnt," Toothless said from outside. Eletra wasted no time in darting out of her cave to meet Toothless. "I prefer Night Furies actually," she replied, quickly distancing herself from the mountain and not looking back.