Everybody has a past. Even dragons aka Toothless. And sometimes, the past can come back to haunt them. And when it does, you're gonna need to be there for them, or Hiccup should.
Toothless shuffled uncomfortably on the spot.
"Hiccup tell Toothless to go back to sleep." Ferno mumbled, half asleep, hugging the pillow tightly.
"Toothless go back to sleep." Hiccup too, barely conscious, murmured, pulling the covers over himself.
The Night Fury shuffled on the spot for a moment then went back to his rock bed.
-000-
The next morning, there was a crowd of containing of the Dragon Rider, Stoic and Gobber surrounding a random hole that was not there before. Toothless, especially didn't like the strange dugout.
"Whoa, hey! It's just a hole, bud." Hiccup said, patting his dragon.
"It's not just a hole!" The voice of the half-brain dead Bucket came out of the hole. "It's like an underground village!"
"Bucket!" Mulch looked into the hole to find his companion. "I've been lookin' for you all night!"
"Sorry Mulch … But I think I finally found it… My happy place!" There was a rumbling in the depths of the whole and Bucket was thrown out at the speed of light.
"Are you alright Bucket?" Stoic asked.
"I'm not so happy anymore." Bucket adjusted his helmet/bucket.
"What happened?"
"Something pushed me out! Something's down there. Something, big!"
Toothless growled into the hole.
"What's he on about?" Ferno pointed to the cautious looking Night Fury.
"What is that sound?" Astrid looked around. The high-pitched rumbling that was earlier in the hole had escaped onto the streets of Berk.
"Eh, whatever it is, it's giving me the willies." Gobber quipped in, unnecessarily.
Something from underneath the earth, blasted through the floor like a drill and a snake-like … thing flew out. Spikes covering its whole body and a jaw full of rotating teeth that looked like could slice through anything.
"Whooooaaaaa, look at the size of that thing!" Snotlout commented.
"Do I have to?" Fishlegs cowered in fear, as usual.
"Come on, we've seen bigger." Ferno hit Fishlegs on the shoulder.
"Dragons! Everyone!" Astrid yelled, as no one else could take command, still too stunned.
The riders sped off to their dragons and quickly saddled them, with the exception of Hiccup, whose dragon had vanished into the hole earlier.
The intruder sharped an awkward almost-eyeless gaze onto the riders.
"Uh, I don't like the way it's eyeballing me." Snotlout voiced his fear.
"Uh, don't worry, it's not just you." Fishlegs assured him.
"Thanks, big relief!" Snotlout rolled his eyes.
The almost giant Whispering Death dived back into solid earth, ripping from earth like it was candy.
"What, was, that?" Astrid starred at the place where it dove back in.
"Whatever it was… I want one!" Tuffnut said in a day-dreaming sort of way.
"This is why you only get half a dragon." Ferno reminded.
"If I had to take a guess, I'd say that was … a Whispering Death."
"Whoa, great name." He shut the places where the ears would be on a normal person on Belch's head. "So much better than Zippleback." He whispered.
"Where'd it go? Why's it here? What's it gonna do to us?! Why aren't you slapping me to snap me out of this?!" Bucket stood on top of a wooden barrel.
"Because I'm scarred too, Bucket." Mulch stood on the barrel next to Bucket's.
The thing burst through a new, fresh hole.
"Oh you don't wanna walk in on that in the middle of the night." Ferno commented, looking at the two holes in the centre of the footpath.
"Okkaaay! Uh, Fishlegs, what do we know about the Whispering Death?" Hiccup shouted.
"Boulder class: Razor sharp teeth, incredibly strong, hunts from underground." Fishlegs blurted everything he knew.
"Now I really want one!" Tuffnut yelled.
"Yeah to swallow you whole." Ferno yelled, panic rising now.
"So, how do we deal with this thing?" Snotlout voiced everyone's thoughts.
"Stand back everyone!" Stoic's booming voice would have been heard for miles, he rode in on Thornado who bellowed at the intruding dragon. "Thornado's got something to say to this beast!"
"Alright, let's run this thing out of here!" Astrid yelled.
But as the riders were about to do that, a certain Night Fury pounced out of the whole and growled at the Whispering Death, but throwing growls to the rider's direction as well.
"What is Toothless doing?!" Snotlout yelled.
"I think he wants us to back off." Astrid tried to decipher Dragonese.
"No problem here." Fishlegs backed off instantly.
"You really know how to show up, don't you? This would have been such an awesome fight." Ferno moaned as Sheik backed away with the other riders.
"Toothless!" Hiccup yelled from the top of his lungs, worried for the life of his best friend.
The Whispering Death and Night Fury fought ferociously, but Toothless was unable get airborne.
"Toothless can't fly without me. He's a sitting duck." Hiccup remembered.
"Gobber, man the catapults, and when that thing is clear of Toothless, fire!" Stoic jumped off the Thunderdrum.
"Dad wait! Just let me help you, bud." Hiccup ran up to Toothless, and tried to get onto the Night Fury, only to be thrown off. "What? Toothless, what… what's wrong!?"
"What was that all about?" Astrid ran up to him.
"I have no idea." Hiccup said, with bated breath.
"This is just the event of the century." Ferno ran up to them.
One of the spikes of the Whispering Death shot out of the body and pierced the leg of the Night Fury.
"Gobber!" Stoic yelled.
The blacksmith fired from the catapult at the Whispering Death and it retreated down a hole, carving a new path underground.
Hiccup ran up to the dragon. "Oh no, you're hurt!" He noticed the giant splinter in the leg. Toothless stopped growling and allowed his rider to pull the spike out, then abundantly ran off.
"Toothless wait!" Hiccup called at the retrieving dragon.
"Where's he going?" Astrid asked.
"Probably running away to lick his wounds." Snotlout laughed, then noticed Hiccup, Astrid and Ferno glaring at him.
"It's not funny, he could've been killed. He can't fly, remember?"
"And whose fault is that?" Snotlout was now playing with fire. He got punched in the ribs by Ferno's elbow.
"Seriously, did you just go there?" Astrid did the infamous glare.
"Hey, I call it like I see it." Snotlout rubbed his ribs.
"Um, does anyone want to talk about what in the name of Thor just happened?" Fishlegs spoke, voice still trembling with fear.
"Not really." Ferno said, nonchalantly.
"Dragon fight? Just another day on Berk." Tuffnut suggested.
"Uh not really. It seemed like there was way more to it than that." Fishlegs showed his nerdy side of himself, by analysing everything.
"He's right. The Whispering Death, singled Toothless out." Hiccup lifted the spike.
"And Toothless wanted that Dragon all to himself." Astrid supplied.
"Yeah he certainly did. But why?" Hiccup wondered.
"Uhh, are we going to be tested on this, because I'm completely confused?" Tuffnut spoke and looked at his sibling.
"Well, don't look at me." Ruffnut shrugged.
"Calm down, before your heads explode from thinking." Ferno patted their shoulders and walked to his brother's side.
-000-
"I really wish you could just tell me what was going on out there today." Hiccup put some kind of moisture on his best friend's injured leg.
"Sure, Hiccup, that dragon and I just had a little fight and decided that Berk is my territory over a cup of tea and a biscuit." Ferno faked a faint, girlish voice, from his top buck reading a scroll on fatherhood.
"Thanks for the translation." Hiccup deadpanned.
There were footsteps coming up the stairs and the Night Fury immediately growled and looked ready to pounce. The form of the Chief of Berk walked up the stairs.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa easy bud, it's just my dad." Hiccup calmed the alarmed Night Fury.
"How's our wounded warrior?" Stoic asked.
"He's still a little on edge."
"Don't worry Toothless. I think we showed that Dragon a thing or two about uninvited guests on Berk—"
"Then how come dragons kept raiding us during the war." Ferno asked, biting into an apple not lifting his eyes from the scroll.
Stoic ignored him. "I don't think he'll be back any time soon." He patted the dragon. "At least I hope not." He went downstairs.
"Yeah, me too. Okay this should do it bud. You just need to take it easy." Hiccup finished bandaged up the leg. Toothless went and lied down on his normal rock bed. "Lights out?"
"Yeah." Ferno hid the scroll in his pillow and lied down, as Hiccup blew out the candle.
Neither of them knew that Toothless had escaped through a window, when both were deep asleep.
-000-
It was only in the morning that they discovered Toothless had escaped.
"Maybe, he's out for a morning flight … Oh that's right, he can't." Snotlout laughed.
"Seriously?! You're going there again? Now?!" Astrid glared, hard. Ferno cracked his knuckles, ready for the punching-Snotlout session.
"Toothless, must be looking for the Whispering Death. We find it, we find Toothless." Hiccup interrupted her before there was a full scale war between Astrid and Ferno against Snotlout, which would have been fun to watch, if his dragon wasn't in mortal danger.
"What do we do if we find the Whispering Death first?" Fishlegs asked, in the wimpy voice as usual.
"We *cough* Fishlegs *cough* man up." Ferno stated, or more like ordered.
"You know he's got 'death' in his name, right?" Tuffnut asked.
Hiccup smiled at his brother in appreciation for shutting up the Riders. "Fishlegs, is there anything about the Whispering Death in the Book of Dragon that can help us?"
Fishlegs at once fell into the Book that he now always carried with him. "It can shoot razor sharp spines from any part of its body."
"And how's that gonna help us?" Astrid asked.
"Well it would help if we stayed away from those." Fishlegs reasoned.
"Or we can get near them and use Ruffnut as a human shield." Tuffnut already had that imagine glistening in his grey-blue eyes. His sister, had a different opinion, and she showed it by kicking him. "Ow, my kneecap, that's new … I like it."
"This dragon must have a weakness…" Hiccup resumed the previous topic.
"Actually, no. Yeah, it says right here: 'no known weaknesses'." Fishlegs said like it was the weather.
"Right, and when was this book last updated?" Ferno cocked his eyebrow, trying to take the lead while the usual Head of Academy in desperate times. "Last century?"
"Actually Bork lived 2 centuries ago." Fishlegs missed the sarcasm.
"I really love this thing." Tuffnut pointed to the picture of the Whispering Death in the book.
"Uh, ok. Can we go now?" Hiccup hopped onto Stormfly like it was his own dragon, followed by the owner herself.
"Don't worry, Hiccup. We'll find him."
-000-
"There, down below." Hiccup pointed to some holes in the ground in the middle of the woods. Stormfly landed and Hiccup bounded up to the holes yelling his dragon's name. "Toothless?! Toothless?!"
"How do we even know the Whispering Death made these holes?" Snotlout asked.
"So you think it might be the other 2,500 pound, rocking eating Dragon we're following?" Astrid asked, sarcastically.
"I know what you're- Don't try to confuse me." Snotlout snapped back.
"Look at this…? He must've lost a tooth." Hiccup picked up a sharp tooth that resembled a dagger.
"Yeah, but I doubt he would have noticed. Did you see how many he had?" Ferno walked up to his brother.
"Is it sharp? If it is I want it! I like sharp!" Tuffnut and Ruffnut talked somewhere in the back ground about the usual … pain, death and torturing each other.
"Yeah, sharp is good."
"Think about this: hundreds of those, spinning together, ripping through dirt and tree root like it's not even there." Fishlegs visualised, pointing to the tooth.
The dragons began to shuffle, uncomfortably and back away from the holes.
"Stormfly, what's wrong?"
"What's wrong with you, dragon?"
"Barf, settle down!"
"Shriek, stand still!"
"Stop! … Listen…" Hiccup shushed the gang.
"Listening for what?!" Tuffnut yelled across the field.
"I don't hear anything… What are we listening for?!" Ruffnut didn't not help the cause.
"If you don't shut up right now I will use your skin as a coat." Ferno hissed.
"Be quiet!" Astrid hissed to the three of them.
"How are we supposed to ehar anything over her yelling-?" Tuffnut asked, loudly.
"Shhh!"
The all too familiar noise resurrected again. "The whisper…" Fishlegs realised.
The ground shook. Literally.
"Looks like we beat Toothless." Snotlout said in a scared voice.
"Yeah … we win…" Astrid said in almost equal tremor.
The Whispering erupted from the earth life a volcano, with teeth spinning around like chain saw.
"I'm not feeling like a winner…" Fishlegs admitted, cowering back. The Whispering Death's razor sharp teeth were inches away from the geek. "Hi … um … I like the teeth…" The Whispering Death roared and dug back into the ground.
"I hate it when he does that! Can you at least tell me why he does it?!" Snotlout was never the most patient of the gang.
Fishlegs began to ponder about the possibilities, as everyone looked to him for dragon fact answers. "Maybe to hunt…? Maybe because it's cooler…? Maybe to look for water…? Maybe because he can't stand the pressure of everybody always expecting him to have the answers!" If it wasn't for the desperate situation, then most of the gang would have sat back and watched the entertaining show of Fishlegs losing his sanity.
"He's losing it." Tuffnut whispered.
"I know… it's awesome." Ruffnut agreed.
Once again, the Whispering Death blew out of the ground with the menacing loo in its eyes, ready to kill.
"Somebody hold it still. I wanna pet it!" Tuffnut would have gotten his way, if Ruffnut didn't grab him and pull him back to safety.
Hiccup began to walk to the alive terminator. "Do you actually have a plan, or are you just trying to get yourself killed?" Astrid asked, seeing him making his way.
"He never has a plan." Ferno mumbled, rubbing his forehead.
"If I can train it, it'll leave Toothless alone…" Hiccup attempted to reason.
"Right, so you are trying to get yourself killed?" Snotlout said, casually.
The Whispering Death charged towards Hiccup at full speed, dust surrounded everything and none of the riders had enough time to react. The dust cleared and the scene of Hiccup holding out his hand and The Infamous Whispering Death seemingly frozen in front of Hiccup's hand. The deadly, untamed beast sniffed his hand and turned away, creating a new hole.
"Okay?" Hiccup looked into that hole.
"Um, I know what you're thinking, and the answer's no." Astrid almost sensed what he was about to do.
"Hiccup. Stay." Ferno talked to his bother like a dog or a half-trained dragon.
Hiccup jumped into the hole.
"Why does he always do that?" Astrid directed her rhetorical question at the younger of the Haddock Brothers.
"It's like talking to a brick wall." Ferno deadpanned.
"Oh man, I am so glad I'm not down there with him right now." Fishlegs looked down, then suddenly fell in, a result of a shove from the Jorgenson Heir.
"Oops."
"Why do I get the dragon-obsessed, crazy, half-brother and not anyone else?" Ferno groaned, cautiously descending down into the hole.
"Wow, this place is getting a tourist attraction." Hiccup said, seeing his brother arrive in the hole.
"Snotlout pushed me." Ferno lied, dusting himself, being the proud, insensitive Viking that he was.
Hiccup rolled his eyes, but then he looked around at the labyrinth of tunnels. "This things been busy."
"Quick question … why are we down here?" Fishlegs fidgeted on the spot, like his shorts were itchy.
"This is where it spends all it's time. There must be something down here that can help us." Hiccup walked deep into the tunnel. There was a slither between the caves, and for a spit second they saw the Whispering Death. "There it goes, let's follow it."
"Right behind you." The Haddock Brothers broke off into a job, but stopped when they realised that Fishlegs was standing on the spot. They both turned and looked at the Ingerman.
"Oh, you were talking to me…?" Fishlegs acted surprised.
"If you want, you can go back up." Ferno stated, impatiently.
Fishlegs looked excited and turned around to do that when—
"Fishlegs, new dragon. You love this stuff!" Hiccup encouraged him to come back.
The book nerd sighed and turned around on his heels, groaning and following the two half-brothers. "I hate that about me." He mumbled.
The three of them walked deep into the dark, dangerous and mysterious tunnels that seemed to stretch forever. The Whispering Death showed itself, half-blind as it was, it didn't notice three intruders in it's hole.
"Guys, do you see that?" Fishlegs pointed to something on the Whispering Death.
"Is that-?" Hiccup squinted his eyes.
The deadly dragon hissed and got away.
"Was that a bite mark?" Ferno questioned.
"Not just any bite mark. That's a Night Fury bite mark." Fishlegs realised.
"They have a history." Hiccup voiced what this companion was thinking.
"A grudge." Fishlegs added.
"Well, how far would dragon rivalry go?" Ferno asked.
"To the death?" Fishlegs spoke.
"Phew … no." Ferno denied. "You see dragons sparring on Berk all the time, and they come back with bite marks much worse, yet you don't see them kill each other."
"Let's get out of here." Hiccup ignored his brother and the three ran off.
"Hey, am I like the deaf ear around here?" Ferno complained yet still followed them.
"Pretty much." Hiccup huffed.
-000-
"Guys, you still up there!?" Ferno yelled up to entrance of the hole.
"You there?" Astrid looked down the hole with the rest of the teens.
"Did you see the Whispering Death?" Tuffnut asked enthusiastically.
"Did you touch it?" Ruffnut asked.
"I wanna touch it!"
"And you can kiss it too because it's coming this way!" Ferno yelled as the whisper of the deadly beast got closer.
"We really need to get out of this hole." Fishlegs whimpered.
"Yeah, you do." Astrid noticed the ground arising and travelling towards them. The teens on the ground above, grabbed each other and used each other to pull up their friends in the hole.
"Alright Fishlegs, you go first." Hiccup said, him and Ferno making a step from the nerd to get out.
"No problem here." Fishlegs was quickly pulled out.
"Alright, you next." Ferno crouched holding out his arms, for Hiccup to use to get out.
"I can't just leave you here. Who'll pull you out?!" Hiccup protested.
"If we continue arguing we'll both die!" Ferno yelled.
"Will you just get out of the hole?!" Astrid shouted, infuriated by the Haddock Brother's choice of time for an argument.
"Wait! Everyone stand back!" Hiccup yelled and grabbed his half-brother's shoulders. The Whispering Death's force hit them full on and they both fell out, meters away from the ground. Each Haddock Brother was grabbed by one of Stormfly's claws and landed safely on the ground.
"Thanks Astrid." They thanked in perfect unison.
The gang ran as soon as it was apparent that even the almighty, fearsome Dragon Nip! Couldn't take it out. Toothless managed to intercept them, somehow, and attack the Whispering Death, as all the other dragons had committed treason and fainted on the spot from the rogue flying dragon nip.
"Toothless!"
The Night Fury managed to chase the Whispering Death away, and for the moment 'the unholy offspring of lightning and death' seemed like the perfect title for the vicious Night Fury. Not even Hiccup, was able to get him under control.
"Awkward." Tuffnut commented as Toothless ran off.
-000-
"So, Toothless has an arch-enemy… kind of like you and me." Snotlout stated, after Hiccup, Ferno and Fishlegs explained about Toothless' bite mark on the Whispering Death.
"Snotlout, you're not my arch-enemy." Hiccup yelled from behind Astrid.
"Awkwardly enough, you're arch-nemesis is my father. Anyone else think that's a little weird considering we're brothers?" Ferno commented.
"Well, he is mine." Snotlout said, without even thinking.
Astrid shook her head. "He's just trying to protect you."
"That's not what it is. Toothless doesn't want you to get involved because this is between him and the other guy. He's a fighter. Like me. Not … whatever you are."
"I can't believe I'm saying this but Snotlout … you're absolutely right!"
"Huh? You guys heard that, right?"
"I don't think we wanted to." Ferno gave Hiccup the disturbed look.
"It's not a fair fight. If Toothless is gonna win, he needs to fly and he can't fly without me."
"So what are you saying?" The Hofferson shield-maiden questioned the second passenger.
"I'm saying we need to find him. And fast." Hiccup stated/ordered.
-000-
When they did find Toothless, nothing much had changed. The dragon still charged head first into battle with the Whispering Death. Which resulted in him being trapped in the middle of an inescapable canyon.
Hiccup decided that it was a good idea to free fall, his shirt being missed by either Astrid or Ferno's grips by mere centimetres, causing firstly, Toothless to jump after him, secondly, them to almost die, thirdly, to discover the very well hidden Whispering Death weakness (light? Who knew?) And bring an end to the Thor-knows-how-old feud between the two dragons.
"…Well, I guess not all grudges are to the death." Hiccup said, patting his dragon affectionately.
That sentence, made the Fire-bearer ask himself the question. 'Is mine and Fenris' grudge be to the death.'
-000-
I know it's rushed and I am extremely sorry. I hoped you enjoyed it.