Chapter 24

Hi everybody! Sorry I didn't update in a while, I had a lot of work recently, also my mom went to hospital for some times, but she is now fine and back home.

I do hope you'll enjoy this chapter, and I thank everyone who left a review!

The sun would seldom shine on Dragon Island, when clouds weren't covering the sky, heavy smoke from the volcano would. A few green spots and the colors of the dragons flying around were the only things livening this gloomy place. Toothless and Hiccup had never known how to consider that place. Many dragons would hatch their eggs here, it was familiar, it had been a nice place to rest in when they were still fighting humans. Yet they would only be safe outside, and knowing what kind of horror would hide under the rocks would always make them feel insecure. Dragons were fighting each other for food, or searching for mates, or simply resting and playing with others.

"This place could be a real home for dragons, if she wasn't here," Hiccup declared for no one in particular.

"I'm sure it will be one day," Fishlegs replied softly.

The dragon-child grinned, they passed above a couple of Rumblehorns and a few Night Furies who weren't Starlight nor Summer. The brothers hoped they would see Thinpaws but remembered that she had eggs which she had to protected or which had hatched already. She wasn't around, she was on Night Fury's island and they would be the ones to visit. Yet for now there were more important matters. Everything seemed normal, no sign of the Red Death coming out anytime soon.

When they finally landed on the island, the teens and dragons were all anxious and Hiccup seriously reconsidered this. It was essential to try something, but was it the best thing to do? He looked at Astrid who seemed determined, if she was scared she was hiding it well, and he decided it would be enough to reassure him. He took a deep breath:

"Be careful. We…She must not get too close. Come."

"Maybe we could stay behind, I mean, she won't understand us anyway…"

"Snotlout, we're all going in together, understood?" Astrid growled.

His cousin didn't protest anymore, the teens all went in, walking carefully in the largest tunnel with their dragons. Shrieks from Night Furies were heard and Hiccup's guts contorted as it sounded like Starlight, or maybe it was Summer…Toothless growled at his side.

"I can hear them. I'll keep an eye on them, but I won't be able to watch the Red Death as well, be careful."

"I'll be, don't worry."

"Yeah, I already heard that."

The dragon-child smiled, knowing he had indeed made some bold decisions in the past which had angered Toothless. If the rogue Night Furies were in here too, it would be dangerous and once again Hiccup felt the temptation to leave. Maybe he could turn around and tell his friends to go home…Yet if he wasn't able to do anything, then his new home would be destroyed. A red glow appeared in the tunnel and he felt a cold shiver in spite of the heat. Redder and redder, the tunnel eventually opened on the seemingly endless pit and Hiccup and Toothless stepped forward, Toothless watching out for any sign or Summer or Calla and Hiccup focusing on the smoke in which the Red Death would hide. The others were saying back, looking for any threats and ready to help in case something went wrong.

He shrieked loudly, calling out for her, and waited. At first, nothing answered but sounds from other dragons and the distant hiss of the wind outside. He was about to call again when a dark and gigantic form arose. Hiccup breathed in deeply, he couldn't stay too far but he couldn't get too close either. He saw the giant dragon appearing, this colossal and dark shadow emerging from the glowing pit and he unconsciously gripped the stone walls next to him. The creature had something malevolent in her eyes, it wasn't new, but he couldn't get used to it.

"You'd rather have a good reason to bother me."

"I do…I need to speak to you."

"And why would the dragon-child want to speak to me?"

She rose slowly by climbing to the stone walls until her head was right before him. Terror invaded him, she had never been so close to him, just one more move and she would devour him…He could hear the others gasp behind him, but he couldn't look at them, he would only keep his eyes on her. Her eyes narrowed, he had to speak, now! He gulped, then breathed in deeply and tried to look confident:

"You learned that we joined the humans, didn't you?"

"I did, and I see..." she turned her eyes toward the back of the tunnel. "I see that you brought some of those humans."

Oh, he didn't like her eyes on them!

"Yes. They're friends. The humans on our island are ready to give you food, no need to attack anymore."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, we told them what you needed, they prefer to give some and stop having their homes burned."

"I heard you pretend to fight me, dragon-boy."

"Of course not," Hiccup lied, "I would never be able to do that. I don't want to fight you, I just want the dragons to stop attacking the tribe we live in."

"Dragons shouldn't live with humans."

"Does that matter? As long as you get your food, why do you care?"

It was true, she knew it. Did she have to care that the boy and his Night Fury of a brother got besotted with humans? If she had food, it wouldn't matter, and if they could make things simpler for the dragons to get her meals, all the better!

"Alright child, I'll tell my dragons to collect the food you'll give them, but no more. However, if you don't give enough, we'll attack again."

"Yes, we will give them enough, I promise."

He felt relieved, she accepted, it could buy them some times. He heard a low but still loud chuckle and tensed even more.

"I always wondered how you tasted, boy."

"We'll get you food, I'm leaving now."

He stepped back and turned away before running as fast as he could, and another low chuckle was heard. His friends and brother did exactly the same, once they were out, they flew far away from the entrance. It was stupid, if she had allowed them to get out, she wouldn't try to get them now, but they couldn't help it. They landed in one of the few green spots of the island and they all took a moment to evacuate the tension.

"What do we do now? We're going back home?"

"We need to figure out a plan now," Astrid declared, "once we'll be home the adults won't let us go anywhere. Let's figure out a plan while we can move around freely."

"Figuring something out is your specialty," Ruff answered, "and seriously Astrid, how are we gonna do that?"

"It won't be easy to kill her, we could try to take her by surprise but she has a great smell," Hiccup said.

"No wonder, with such a snout, she could just swallow us by the nostrils," Ruff mused.

"We would get out of her noses covered with dragon's mucus," Tuff laughed, "hey, maybe we could just poison her or something?"

"We don't know what would work against her, and I doubt we could gather the quantity needed even if we did. If we want to beat her, we need to know more about her weaknesses and abilities," Fishlegs stated.

"Her abilities and weaknesses? Simple: she can crush us with one paw, and she has no weaknesses!" Snotlout exclaimed.

"You can do that, Fishlegs?" Asked Hiccup. "If you can look at her close?"

"Hum, yeah but how could I…"

"There is a way, we'll approach her close." Hiccup jumped on his feet, "I can show you, she won't see us if we are silent. But we should go alone."

Astrid didn't like that, but she could understand: the less they would be, the less they would risk. Hiccup and Toothless led them toward a tunnel on a lower part of the mountain, the boy explained that it opened on the Red Death's lair but at a lower level and they would therefore be closer.

"But there will be tons of smoke," Astrid objected, "you won't be able to see her!"

"If I can at least have an idea of her size, weight and a broad sight of her frame, it will be better than nothing. We only saw her head until now," Fishlegs explained.

Although she didn't like it, it was still an idea. She shrugged and sat on a rock:

"We will stay here and watch out for any other threats, no dragons will come in this tunnel, I promise."

"So do we," the teens declared in unison.

"I'll tear any threats apart," Snotlout boasted.

"Thanks you," Hiccup murmured.

With all the courage he could muster, Fishlegs followed Hiccup as silently as possible. The tunnel got darker and darker very quickly, the red glow of the lava wasn't to be seen yet and at a point, the two boys could do nothing but creep down and trust their hands to guide them. Fishlegs's breath was shaking uncontrollably, it seemed like this was taking forever and he could hear nothing but the sound of their hands rubbing against the stone and their own breath. Sometimes, he would accidentally grab the wild boy's foot or ankle and it was somehow reassuring. This way, he was sure his friend hadn't melted into the darkness.

The heat was becoming almost suffocating, and for a moment the young Hooligan wondered if they would really be able to do this. Would they melt because of the heat? They would probably die out of suffocation first. He started to whimper, and Hiccup shushed him immediately. Oh, how could he be so stupid?! They couldn't be heard!

The dragon-boy hoped his friend wouldn't do any mistakes, it could cost them their lives if the Red Death sensed them. He held back a cough, he was used to the heat, yet this place was especially hot, smoky and suffocating. Yet they couldn't stop, they couldn't let the smoke overcome them! He was sweating, he hoped she wouldn't catch their scent. Maybe the smoke would actually be good to mask it. When he thought he had been face to face with her…His mother would have had a stroke! And Stoick…Oh Stoick would have hated that. It didn't matter though, they weren't here.

Eventually, the tunnel became redder, a soft and weak glow and if Fishlegs felt relieved at first, he remembered what it meant. Hiccup held back another cough and advanced slowly, his earlier fear becoming vivid in his memory and almost making his determination disappear. Yet he had to overcome that, he had to put an end to her and for that they needed to continue. Both were very aware of the danger: they were close to her. A deafening roar was heard and both boys put their hands on theirs ears. Their fear was palpable, yet Hiccup went on and his friend followed even though they were both terrified, sweaty and trembling. Hiccup abruptly stopped and Fishlegs saw why: the tunnel was opening on the pit, and he could see the colossal form of the atrocious monster. He felt the need to cower in the dark. He felt the need to sneeze because of the smoke, and put his hand on his nose.

Hiccup made a sign with his head, and Fishlegs understood what he meant; he narrowed his eyes, though he couldn't see the details of the dragon, he could see enough. The tail first: it was made for crushing, a true weapon with it's mace-like tip, but not so good for flying. It seemed to have wings but Fishlegs had the impression that those were a bit…Flawed. Yet he couldn't see well enough. The wing's joint with the back seemed a bit thin compared to the rest of her anatomy, yet considering the size of beast it was still broad. She had huge paws with huge claws and those made him shudder in fear. Her rib-cage was huge, though considering her muscles and weight, her breathing would probably be still a problem, especially if she used her lungs to fire while she would fly.

A growl was heard, the monster was suddenly getting lower and soon enough she would be at their level. Fishlegs couldn't help but whimper, Hiccup hissed lowly to make him shut up and waved his hand to tell him they should leave. Fishlegs did as such happily, he couldn't bear it any longer. The return seemed as slow as the first travel, both boys couldn't wait to have some fresh air.

At the entrance of the cave, the teens and the dragons were waiting anxiously. What Fishlegs and Hiccup were doing was incredibly dangerous! Even the twins weren't as cheerful as usual and Snotlout would constantly look alternatively at the entrance and their surroundings. Toothless and Astrid were both looking at sky, watching out for any threats. A group of Night Furies passed above them, Toothless sniffed the air and just straightened his ears, looking a bit happy. Astrid deduced those dragons were maybe friends or even family to him and Hiccup. It was maybe for the best, they could need allies. She saw some other dragons, and another Night Fury flew toward the mountain's top. A loud growl was heard and Astrid was startled as she saw Toothless growling threateningly.

The dragons all growled in response, the teens took their weapons once they saw their reactions, but Toothless stopped them from doing anything with just one shriek. She hadn't seen them, maybe Summer wouldn't even know they were here…But Toothless decided otherwise, he needed to have a word with that idiot. He flew up toward her, the others could keep the entrance of the tunnel, Hiccup and Fishlegs would be fine. He rushed to the mountain's top, following her scent, and landed on a rock near her. Summer turned around and roared in surprise and fury. He approached her, his jaws and claws ready to tear her apart if she tried anything. The other dragons around looked at them, the tension between them was too obvious to be ignored.

"How dare you to come before me?! You killed my brothers!" she shrieked.

"Because you attacked us! We wouldn't have killed them otherwise! My brother was almost killed too!"

"You are with the humans, you chose to be our enemy!"

"We go with who we want. And humans are our source of food for the Red Death, killing them just for revenge is madness."

"They kill us for revenge too!"

"And they die even more because of that. During our first fight, I heard you plead to your mother not to kill my brother and the girl."

She remembered that, and she wondered if she had been right or weak to do so. The reminder of the softness she always had for young ones toned down her rage.

"They are young, I don't want to kill young ones."

"But you kill them when they are grown. They'll all die if your mother continues, you know it. If she hadn't started that fight, your brothers would be alive. It's her fault."

"Humans killed her family! Wouldn't you want to kill each one of them if they killed yours?!"

"No, dragons killed humans. Predators kills preys, and sometimes preys kill predators. We all kill and get killed. It's simple. And think: most of the humans you killed had children, what became of them when their parents died? You didn't kill them with your fangs and claws but with no one to take care of them anymore most of them probably died."

With horror, she realized it was true, with no parents to protect them or feed them, young ones were often doomed. Maybe other humans took care of them? But what if none did? What if the adults had too many orphans to take care of and had to let some die? Toothless looked at her, she wasn't that smart but she wasn't as cruel as her mother and maybe there was a chance for her not to end up like Starlight. That was why he had decided to speak with her.

"Dragons and humans can be friends, I like this island I live on. I'm not letting you or anyone kill the ones I love, humans or dragons!"

She looked at him, but was unable to say anything else, she still hated him for killing her brothers but he wasn't completely wrong. Other dragons had heard, there were many around and Toothless was glad of it. The others would understand their reasons when they would kill the Red Death and maybe they would help. Being together would be their assets, maybe Summer would join, though he doubted that and wasn't sure they would need her so much. It was their parents they needed to convince, would Calla and Thunder help them? His mother would probably, but he wasn't sure about their father. He roared at her and turned away from her before flying back to his friends.

At the same time, Hiccup and Fishlegs were coming back, the dragon- boy saw how everybody was tense and he was scared when he saw Toothless was missing.

"Toothless!"

"He went to another Night Fury," Astrid said, "I don't know which one it was."

Hiccup prayed it wasn't Starlight, she was too strong for him, he was sure of that and he wouldn't bear to lose his brother. The previous heat made the wind seems like ice, but it wasn't the real reason why he was trembling. Yet soon enough, he saw a black form plunging toward them and he felt immensely relieved as he recognized his brother. He went to him and rubbed his head against his.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, I saw Summer, I had to speak to her."

Once Toothless had explained him, Hiccup felt relieved to see his brother was fine, Summer wasn't the worse of the family, yet she was still an enemy. He rubbed himself against his brother once more when he suddenly heard his cousin:

"Hey, I don't mean to interrupt, but don't you have some things to tell us?!"

Hiccup rolled his eyes, he was annoyed but Snotlout was right.

"She almost saw us, I thought it would be the end for us!" Fishlegs uttered in a quivering voice.

"But we had enough time, I must say I rarely saw her this closely."

Fishlegs told them what he saw, and though the twins had some difficulty to follow, they at least understood that the Red Death had weaknesses.

"She would be an absolute killer on the ground, but her size and weight wouldn't do so well in the air, also her tail is mainly made to crush, not so much for speed like our dragons. A fast dragon with stamina could exhaust her in the end, also her breathing capacities wouldn't be that good on the long run, especially if she breathes fire."

"But did you see her nostrils?"

"Yeah, I did, but she still had a lot of muscles to feed with air. Also, her wings don't seem that good, and the joint between her wings and shoulders might be more fragile than the rest of her body. As for the head, I saw earlier that she has small eyes, very small eyes and a thick armored skull. She would rely mostly on smell and sounds, and it would be useless to go for the head except if you aim for the eyes. Also, even though her breathing could be her weakness, with such a large throat, she would make broad waves of fire."

"Thank you Fishlegs, it will help," Hiccup assured him.

"So, what now?" Asked Snotlout. "What are we gonna do? We confront her right now?"

"No, we need to be prepared, there is a way to kill her, but in the air, not in her lair. We have to get her out of that mountain," Astrid summed up.

"But how can we do that? Even if we exhaust her, she'll still be able to crush or swallow us."

"We could use her strength against her," Hiccup murmured, "not only by exhausting her."

"We should go home for now, no need to stay around any longer," Fishlegs said in a worry-filled voice. "Our parents will punish anyway, and we can't prepare ourselves here."

They all agreed and rode back to Berk. They reached it at night and sneaked back into their houses although they knew they would get punished anyway. Later, when everyone except some guards were asleep, a shadow darker than night approached. She posted herself in the mountains, she wouldn't attack tonight, but she wanted to observe the village, that place she would reduce in ashes soon.

"If you really suffer that much, maybe you should throw yourself at the Red Death."

Starlight turned around to see Calla sitting above her on a rock and she growled at her enemy.

"I'll destroy your family, just like you destroyed my sons."

"Your sons died because you started a stupid war against humans."

"You know very well why I did that."

"I was sad when your siblings died, they were my friends, just like you. But it's still useless, they simply fought and they died, that's all."

"No! Had you been my friend, you would have cared!"

"It's as such. For a dragon who hates humans so much, you think very much like them. Hiccup's human father hated dragons too because he thought they killed his sons. And had you been my friend, you wouldn't have betrayed me first!"

"Betrayed you?"

"The day you saw my son, you told me to kill him. We were friends and you wanted my child to die, I don't care that he is human or dragon, from the moment I took him, he was mine!"

"Dragons and humans are enemies."

"Soon, they won't be anymore. You can't stop it. You still have your daughter, you should stop while she is still alive, otherwise she'll die too."

Starlight growled at her once more. Calla understood that she would never stop, she didn't have much hope to start with. With no warning, she threw herself down at her enemy, and Starlight didn't have the time to dodge. The two met in a violent blow, claws and teeth drawing out blood through the thick scales. Calla hit her eye violently, making Starlight roar in pain and retaliate with a violent whip of her tail on her opponent's side. They threw at each other once again, bones crushing violently and their forms twisting under the violence of their moves. For a moment, Calla remembered how they used to fight but only for fun when they were still cubs. They would roll themselves in the dirt and lunge at each other but always playfully. Now they both hated each other, both wanting to kill the others and anything that was left of their friendship had died already.

Claws dug on Calla's back while fangs viciously bit one of Starlight's paw. A whip of Calla's tail hit her enemy's head and Starlight lunged at her to push her on the ground. Calla's paws made furious moves to stop the other from pinning her down and she shot fire at her. It landed in Starlight's jaw and Calla pushed her away, but before she could stand, a plasma blast hit her side violently. She growled and got up nonetheless, but as they were about to lunge at each other once more, they heard a loud roar.

Thunder was above them, and he plunged from the sky toward Starlight. The Night Fury dodged and realized she would be outnumbered when he landed next to Calla. She could handle each one of them apart, but not together, so she decided to flee away. She swiftly left the ground but Thunder and Calla were quick to follow her. She would go back to the Red Death, she would eventually convince her, she was sure of it, and the monstrous queen would make them pay!

Calla and Thunder pursued her, swift as lightning, but Starlight wasn't to be underestimated. They were flying above the dark waters, and they soon understood that Starlight was going to Dragon's island. They flew faster and faster, they were about to catch her, Calla almost caught her tail in her jaws, if she could bit a part of it off, Starlight wouldn't be able to fly anymore! Focused on the tail before her, she forced on her wings and tail when suddenly a shriek from Starlight was heard: a shriek of triumph. Thunder roared in alarm, and Calla's eyes widened when she saw why.

In the ocean, a dark form was swimming, making the water around it shook violently. Only the head was out of the waters and it was enough. Calla and Thunder turned back, they had to warn their sons: the Red Death was coming toward them!

Don't hesitate to review! I tried to proofread more carefully, tell me about mistakes.

Twilight Sparkle: sorry I wasn't able to update for your birthday, but happy birthday still, even though I'm a little late ^^