Their muscles tensed at the sight of the deranged leader, who made no effort to approach them, instead he seemed to be cautious of the group of dragons and the two humans, scanning each of his opponents for possible weaknesses he could exploit. His eyes seemed to glisten with hatred and anger whenever they landed on Toothless, but the presence of Mystery added a element of fear to the insane human.
Hiccup stood with his face concealed, his emerald orbs taking in the full extent of the situation placed before him. Dagur was here, and there was a fair few Berserker's already with him, but more could be nearby. If it was just himself and the dragons, it would've been alot easier to fend them off - as Hiccup could handle himself fairly well in combat, and the dragons were, well, dragons, but with Heather present, he ran the risk of endangering the black haired girl - she had no weapon, and he had no knowledge of her combat experience.
He weighed his options, stand and fight - protect the small home they had made for themselves, and risk Heather's saftey, or leave their homes for Dagur and his crew to break down and loot, but ensure the girls saftey. It wasn't much of a difficult choice, as he and Heather quickly rushed inside their house.
"Quickly, gather anything valuable." He told her as he done the same. Heather cleared out downstairs, while Hiccup gathered any valubales from the rest of the house. A scream however cancelled his current activity as he rushed to Heather - who had a knife held to her throat by Dagur.
Hiccup glanced outside, confused about how a viking as deranged, crazy and plain idiotic as him could get past a Nightfury alone, nevermind the rest of the dragons.
"I don't know who you or she is... But I want that Nightfury... So I'll make you a deal." Dagur offered.
Hiccup kept silent, certainly aware that Dagur could recognise his voice. Heather also remained silent, though only for the reason that the knife was pressed quite roughly against her throat. "Ok, so I guess you don't really talk. Well ok then... Heres the deal - I let you have the girl back - unspoilt, and you let me take the Nightfury, or you keep the dragon, and I take the girl. Your choice."
Hiccup shook his head, before he gestured for Dagur to look behind him. The chieftains allies had been defeated, and either lay dead, unconscious or had retreated from fear. His temporary distraction provided Heather with a chance to attempt to escape - but even in the days since Hiccup rescued her, she still hadn't regained her full strength, and her attempt to resuce herself only landed herself a swift kick to her stomach. The signature sound of a sword being drawn, accompanied by growls from all the dragons, even sharpshot, made Dagur think twice about hurting the girl.
"Which one? Girl or Dragon?" He gave an ultimateum, thinking he had power and control over the situation.
Hiccup glanced at Toothless, and pretened as though he had chose the dragon. Taking that as his answer, Dagur lifted Heather from the ground and held the sword to her throat, and he turned to leave - but the Nightfury was right in front of him. The sudden dragon startled the chieftain, long enough for Heather to headbutt him and free herself. Toothless - despite not knowing the girl - realised Hiccup cared for her alot, and protected her. Hiccup took some steps closer to Dagur, who turned around and attempted to slice into his shoulder, but Hiccup blocked with very little effort.
Dagur, realising he was massively outmatched, pulled his sword away and returned it to its sheath, fleeing away in terror, but all of them knew he'd be back with the rest of them. Heather returned to going to collect any valuables left in the house, but not before removing Hiccup's mask and planting a kiss on his cheek. "Thanks" she whispered, her face sporting evidence of a blush, much like his.
"Well, I guess this is goodbye Tooth" Mystery said as she spread her wings and prepared to leave, but she was stopped by the male Nightfury.
"What? Where are you going? Stay with us" Toothless asked, giving his best attempt at puppy eyes, which Mystery struggled to ignore.
"I can't, I left my friend BlightFox with two NightHowler hatchlings we rescued. His probably worried sick about me."
"Let us come with you, we need to leave here anyway now. Your friend and those hatchlings would be safer with us than they would be with just you and your friend" Toothless reasoned with her "no offence" he quickly added.
Mystery found herself almost instantly agreeing with him, which was strange for her to do - agree to stay with a complete stranger, full stop - but here she was, almost instantly agreeing to stay with a Nightfury, Nadder, Nightmare, Terrible Terror, Zippleback, Gronckle and two humans - and she had known them for less than an hour, minus Toothless, but in all fairness, his simple arguement did have valid points.
"Fine, but we'll need to go meet them as quickly as we can."
"Of course, lead the way." Toothless told her as Hiccup and Heather came out from the house. The Nightfury, despite not knowing the girl, decided not to cause any issues and let her hop on behind Hiccup. With a roar he took off into the sky, the rest of the dragons as Mystery took the lead. They made no questions as to why they were following the dragoness, and then they reached the cave where BlightFox had been staying with the younglings, noticing that the entrance was blocked.
"Crap!" She exlaimed, flying down and instantly starting her attempt at removing rocks from the entrance.
Toothless quickly followed suit of his own accord, dropping the humans off before lifting up rocks and dropping them away. The others dragons quickly joined in afterwards, and even Hiccup and Heather tried to help. Soon enough the rocks had all been extracted from the entrance, and a large fox-like dragon was making his way out with two smaller NightHowlers. Mystery proceed closer to BlightFox, and instantly told him to relax as she noticed his muscles tensing when he noticed the Nightfury.
"They helped me move the rocks - and they're not that bad... Infact they're offering me, you and the younglings to go with them." She told the vulpus dragon.
"Mystery? I was worried sick about you. Where have you been? Are you ok? That Nightfury didn't hurt you did he?" BlightFox began to rapid fire question the NightHowler.
"Yes, I'm ok. I was with him most of the time. No he didn't do anything to me." Mystery assured the fretting vulpus. "Where's the youngsters?"
"They were waiting inside while I came to check out what the sounds were - the males called Silver, and the girl is Midnight. Midnight! Silver! Its ok come on out!" The vulpus called back into the cave.
Hiccup and Heather slowly approached closer to the front of the group, but Toothless held his wings out infront of them - telling them to not step any further. The two humans eyes widened as they noticed to young dragond leaving the cave, taking the same form of the dragoness Toothless had returned with. "She must've led us here to help with these guys."
Hiccup took a small step past Toothless, and he noticed that the youngsters almost instantly recoiled and hidden themselves behind the fox-like dragon. "Hey, hey, it's ok... Shhh don't worry" He called to them softly, but he silenced himself and stopped approaching as he heard the dragon infront of him growl, rather visicously as well. "We're not going to hurt you, here see." Hiccup crouched down and held his hand out towards them. Midnight, the younger of the two, was the first to come out of hiding an approach the strange two legged creature.
She sniffed his paw, and it smelt of leather, and dragon - but it was also very smooth to the touch. She gazed at the two legged being's eyes, and they were so warm and inviting, she couldn't help but feel safe and see the creature as friendly. She pushed her snout into the paw (or whatever the two legs called them) and the unique creature began to softly scratch her head and her chin - causing her to purr in delight - much to the surprise of her brother and BlightFox. Next it was Silver, yet the older male was slightly more cautious of the two legged. Despite his sisters reaction, he was older and more educated on the concept of 'stranger danger' Silver approached the two legged, before he noticed the female two legged step forwards and follow the males actions. Seeing his sister was already occupied with the male, he decided to approach the female two legged. He sniffed her outheld paw, and found it to be a sweet scent - which he soon uncovered to be similar to Dragonnip. He pushed his head into her paw, and it was very soft and soothing to the touch. Her eyes were warm, just like the males, and were full of passion and friendliness. The female two legs began to scratch much like the male had done with his his sister, and Silver found himself purring in bliss.
BlightFox, seeing the reaction between the youngsters and humans, began to calm and relieve himself of his guard. He noticed the male human stand up, while the female ended up getting attention from both of the NightHowler's. He growled softly at the male as he approached him. Hiccup, remembering how similar this was to his first encounter with Toothless, decided to employ the same tactic. Closing his eyes and looking away, he outstretched his hand towards BlightFox, who was surprised at the humans actions. He leaned forwards and decided to find out why Midnight was so calm against him, and he sniffed the humans hand - finding it to be a mixture of leather and dragon. BlightFox leant forwards, placing the tip of his snout into the males hand - showing that he was willing to trust them.
"Well bud - looks like we have a few new dragons in the family" Hiccup commented as BlightFox retracted his snout.
"Looks like" was all Toothless commented.
"We should find a new home, now that we have dragon youngsters with us." Hiccup walked over to the two youngsters, who had curled up and fell asleep against Heather. He picked up the smaller female, while Heather took hold of the male - both ensuring to not wake the young dragons. Hiccup hopped onto Toothless, before realising it would be difficult for Heather to ride with him with the dragons. Mystery, sensing the issue, walked up and lowered her body down, allowing Heather to climb on her back.
"Toothless, lets go, and keep it calm ok." Toothless nodded and took to the skies slowly, being followed by Mystery, then BlightFox and the others.
...
Stoick stood in the cove, looking around and noticing the amout of Nightfury scales that lay littered across the surface. He knew Hiccup had been coming here after training - and long before that. It was his favourite place on the island - and with good reason. It was also his mothers favourite place, where both she and he could escape to after a rough day of running the village and relax. Now it served as a painful reminder of the lost.
Astrid, Snotlout and the twins were sitting in the same cave as they were that night everything changed. The blonde shieldmaiden couldn't shake the memory of the demon rider - how could any human think they could control the 'unholy offspring of lightning and death', but why would any human even try to control the demon - surely the rider knew the dragon would kill him aswell - unless there was something more sinister at work between the rider and his beast.
She thought about telling Stoick of the rider, but she feared both Stoick's reaction and the consequence her action could summoun from the rider - if he could control a Nightfury, there was little doubting he could control other devil's - such as those changewings - or the tiny little terrors. For all she knew, there could be dragons lurking in the shadows at that very moment, waiting for her to betray his secret, but that felt way too farfetched.
Mustering up her courage, she beckoned the chieftain over.
"Yes Astrid?" Stoick questioned.
"Stoick , there's something you have to know."
The chieftain raised a curious eyebrow, and with his hand gestured for her to continue.
"It's about the Nightfury... Chief, I saw him again - on Berk, in the forest. I tried to kill him believe me, I tried. Chief, thats not all... There was a person - I couldn't see who because they wore a hood that hid their face, but Chief, they left with the dragon."
"What?" Stoick asked, unsure as to whether he heard it right.
"Chief, out there somewhere is the demon who killed Hiccup, and there is a human rider with him."
Stoick processed the information, alowing it to influence his conclusion as to how to act when encountered with the rider "Whoever that demon rider is - I want him gone with his dragon... It may have very well been his idea to have my son killed."
"Stoick, what if we were to take him prisoner, we could learn so much from him about dragons. We could find out what happened to Hiccup from him." Snotlout piped up.
Stocik made his way back to the village without providing any response to any of the teens comments or questions. The teens remained in the cove, sitting inside the cave and sharing small comments with each other, but Astrid remaine silent as she went to the back. So many different thoughts were flooding around her head she struggled to think straight. She removed the pendant from her neck, looking at it with eyes watering, longing for the one who crafted it to return into their lives. She, with her free hand, grabbed axe handle and lifted the deadly weapon, before she looked at the sharpened blade. She had never took notice of it before, but now it became painfully obvious - one of the blades was stained in dragon blood, the blood of that Nightfury she never killed. At least Stoick didn't know about that - or he'd probably lay some of the blame on her. Either way, she vowed there and then to the gods that she would kill that Nightfury and avenge Hiccup, or at least die trying.