Horrendous woke up early the next day, stretching and massaging his stump a bit more. There was a still a bit of a lasting ache, but the rain had stopped at some point during the night. He looked over the designs he'd drawn up the night before, nodding in satisfaction. It would be able to fit most dragons, with a few minor adjustments needed if it was one of the species you had to ride on their neck. If worst came to worst, though, he'd just bareback with maybe a piece of rope to help hold on until he found a chance to make a more suitable saddle.

He spent most of the morning putting the saddle together in between sharpening axes and swords. It wasn't his best work, but he had to work with what was on hand and he didn't want to use up too many materials. Hiccup still needed to make his own saddle and Toothless's tail. Horrendous stashed the saddle back at the Haddock house for now, underneath his dad's bed where Hiccup hopefully wouldn't find it. He brushed off watching the Dragon Training again and picked up fish from the Great Hall before going back out into the woods.

He found a high ledge, a place he used to regularly rest with Toothless, that was far enough from the village that nobody would see or hear him. Dragons were sure to be wary, what with the vikings killing them every time they came near the island, but hopefully at least one would be brave or stupid enough to make an appearance.

Horrendous dumped the fish out in a pile and sat down next to it, staring out at the sea. The world was still damp from the storm last night and branches sat in odd scattered piles. He pulled out a pile of parchment he'd brought from Stoick's room and the charcoal stick, folding his legs up and using them as a table as he sketched out as much of Toothless's saddle and rigging from memory as he could. He'd made it so many times and had messed around with it that he had it pretty well memorized, but it'd been a while since he'd had to work from scratch.

The dragon scales of his armor had done a decent job keeping him safe from… whatever it was that brought him here, but in doing its job it had come out worse for the wear, especially where Toothless had bit his shoulder. Not beyond saving, but he'd have to mess with it a bit to spread out the scales he had left as optimally as he could. Toothless must've been caught up in the same thing, and Hiccup didn't doubt that his riggings would probably be pretty messed up.

He was so engrossed in his work that he didn't notice his new companions until one of them lept at his hand, chasing the movement of the charcoal across the page. Horrendous pulled back from his drawing as the terrible terror batted at his charcoal. He looked over at the fish pile and saw six others eating it happily, occasionally fighting over the same fish before remembering that there were plenty more right next to them. Three of them were yellow, two reds, a teal, and the one on his lap was green.

Well.

Not the dragons he had been hoping for.

"Hey there." Horrendous scratched the head of the dragon on his lap. He looked out to see if there was anything bigger coming, but the seven small dragons were the only ones in sight. He sighed and shook his head. Of course the terrible terrors would be the only ones to willingly approach. He could wait longer for something else, or try setting up traps or something, but he didn't want to waste more time. "I'm not going to find anything here, am I?"

The terrible terror yipped and curled up on his lap. The other six saw this and started claiming different parts of him to perch on.

"Okay, we're gonna need a new plan."

oOo

Hiccup knocked on his dad's door. There was a moment of silence, then something that sounded almost like squealing that was cut off abruptly. He could hear Horrendous fumbling around and then the door opened a crack.

"Hiccup?" Horrendous said, still looking half asleep.

"Do you, uh, do you know anything about night furies?"

Horrendous gave a huge sigh and opened the door wider. Hiccup moved to head in, but Horrendous instead moved out and closed the door behind him, walking over to the fire. His shirt was off, wearing only his pants, and Hiccup's eyes ran over the man's torso. He was marred with scars. Burn scars that puckered the skin, huge sets of diagonal lines like he'd been mauled by a dragon, a particular bite scar over his stomach that made Hiccup put his hand over his own in sympathy. Horrendous had taken the bandage off of his shoulder, giving a clear view of the healing mark on his shoulder. Hiccup found himself mentally checking it up against the night fury's - Toothless? It was as good a name as any - teeth. So he really had been attacked by a night fury.

"Yeah. I do."

Hiccup, despite his his own tiredness, perked up at that.

"Really? Gobber said nobody's seen one and lived to tell the tale - then again, you clearly survived your ship being wrecked. But maybe it was night or something and it attacked you from behi-"

"I saw it very clearly. That wasn't my first time seeing a night fury." Horrendous sat down in front of the fire, grabbin the metal rod next to the it and stoking the coals. "It was a night fury that bit my leg and made me lose my foot."

"Oh." Hiccup shuffled awkwardly. "Sorry to bring it up."

"You didn't know, it's fine. But you've got to know, what you're doing can have serious lasting consequences." Hiccup froze. He'd only just interacted with Toothless today, only finished up on his tail late this night. "Your Dragon Training." Horrendous clarified and Hiccup sagged in relief. Of course. He'd been careful. There was no way this guy knew he hadn't killed Toothless - he probably didn't even know about Hiccup's claims to have shot one down!

"So… do you just know what they look like?" Hiccup asked, sitting down to the right of Horrendous. The man's eyes remained on the coals that he continued to poke and prod.

"No, I know a bit more about them. Their teeth are retractable, and they're capable of walking on two legs if they try. Their claws can flex to grip things better." Horrendous flexed his own fingers, and Hiccup wondered what he was thinking about. "I can draw you a picture of one, if you wanted. I don't think I'll ever forget what one looks like."

"That's okay." The claws thing was new, but the rest of it he'd already known and he'd drawn a picture himself. Apparently not even Horrendous would be able to help him out. He looked at the man, trying to place the things they had in common that may point towards his mom. "Hey, Horrendous, why were you looking for my mom?"

"... since my parents, uh, died, I've been pretty lonely. I've known people who can call the sea home, but, without my family there, it just isn't. So I guess I was looking for family again?" Horrendous shrugged. "I've never met her. She'd be… thirty-five? I think? And I'm only twenty-one. Even if we had met before, I probably wouldn't remember."

"Oh." Hiccup said again. He hadn't known he'd wanted to ask until he no longer could.

Breaking the odd atmosphere between them was the sound of something falling in Stoick's room. Horrendous shot to his feet, eyes sharp and glued on the door to Stoick's room before covering it up with a big yawn that seemed way too fake.

"If that's all, I should be getting back to bed. Lots of, uh, weapons to sharpen tomorrow. You should too. Dragon Training isn't going to go easy on you." Horrendous was back in his room, door shut, before Hiccup could say anything.

The guy had a point though. It was already really late, and he still had Dragon Training in the morning, not to mention the stress of strapping a tailfin on a dragon. Best to get as much sleep as he could manage.

oOo

The night fury was an enigma to Valka.

After the dragons had eaten their fill of the fish, Valka had managed to easily convince the night fury to leave the cave. With his tailfin damaged and unable to fly, Cloudjumper had had to pick him up with his as carefully as he could with his hind legs, like he was an overgrown sheep.

Despite how friendly he had been when they'd first met, he seemed to get more cautious of her as time went on. He kept sniffing through her stuff and walking around like he was looking for something but not finding anything.

She had taken off the riggings and saddle, eyeing it all curiously. As far as she was aware, she didn't know anybody else who actively rode dragons. Not even Drago. There was also the fact that he was missing the tailfin. On one hand it was a night fury, a rare and dangerous breed, which would make someone want to keep it. Yet on the other hand, he couldn't fly and that would make his worth much lower in the eyes of men.

He got along perfectly well with Cloudjumper, and they would talk to each other often and for long periods of time. Even with how long she'd spent with dragons, she was unable to tell what exactly they were saying but oh, what stories the fury must have to tell. It sure sounded amazing, and Cloudjumper often made surprised and imploring sounds in response to what the night fury said.

Oddly enough, while the night fury seemed very respectful of the alpha, he'd never bowed to him. If anything, it almost seemed like the much smaller dragon thought of himself as an equal of the alpha. Even odder was the fact that the bewilderbeast didn't seem bothered by this.

When it was feeding time, he climbed on the back of any dragon who would let him - though it was usually Cloudjumper. A couple of times he'd try to jump and glide off into the distance, but he couldn't get very far and Cloudjumper had to go and and pick him up. He'd huff angrily and growl something up at the stormcutter.

About five days after she'd brought him in, it all seemed to come to a head.

He roared and jumped around, clearly tired of being cooped up. Most of the dragons that could no longer fly due to injury usually had similar fits, not used to being grounded and getting restless, despite how nice it was in the Sanctuary, but the night fury seemed almost insane as he ran around, jumping up the sides and raking his claws down the ice as if he was trying to climb out of there.

"Hey, hey, it's okay." Valka murmured, trying to get close enough to pet him. He just roared again, teeth bared and feet stomping. He even let out a shot at one point, firing at a block of ice. Valka sighed. It was safer here for the night fury, but she could see how even a place like this could start to seem like just a huge cage. When she'd first been brought here by Cloudjumper, she'd certainly felt the same anxiousness that the night fury must be feeling.

Cloudjumper, as usual, seemed to know exactly what she was thinking, landing and allowing Valka to climb on his back before picking up the night fury and flying back out of the Sanctuary. The dragon stopped his fussing once he was in Cloudjumper's grasp and even seemed to croon out a thank you.

They landed on a sheet of ice not too far from home. The night fury looked around for a moment, and she expected him to go running off and playing in the snow or something. Instead he just sat down, head tilted to the side, and looking incredibly and sad and lost.

"I don't know what you want from me." Valka sighed. He allowed her to get close enough to pet him this time. "You're safer in the Sanctuary. Nobody would even hesitate to kill you in a state like yours."

He whined again and it broke her heart that she couldn't help him.