Chapter 10
Small-Claw and Toothless managed to sleep a little. The unspoken agreement to take turns listening out while the other slept a little better seemed to have dissolved, Small-Claw waking up and finding himself rather embarrassingly bundled over his likeness, bellies up and legs splayed out, their tails curled around each other. The four-flyer was wide awake, he could see those bright yellow eyes staring down at him curiously, and he slowly untangled himself from the scaled bundle he had accidentally fallen asleep over.
A quiet confused warble was sent to him from across their small landing area and he sat up, resting on his rump, shaking himself out and stretching his wings and tail until they were no longer aching with the familiar pang of a good night's sleep.
Small-Claw blinked his eyes slowly and replied with the soft chirp gurgle of query, the Four-Flyer shrugging its shoulders to him and tilting his head to the side almost entirely. It made him shiver a little at the strange sight but also made him laugh, amused. The larger scale-wing paused for a moment.
"You strange fledgling." Cloud-leaper stated, simply, and he almost laughed again. Small-Claw gave his best gummy grin, tongue hanging out and nodded his head vigorously so that his tongue lightly slapped his snout.
Toothless was awake now, he'd heard his breathing pick up and noted the slight tenseness in his hind legs as if to pounce in front of him. He rolled his eyes at the strange behaviour and swatted his friend lightly with his tailfin, making him sit up and pretend like he'd been awakened by it, swatting him back with his own tailfin.
Cloud-leaper looked up into the darkened sky and crooned, turning around and nudging his two-leg awake. Small-Claw licked his friend's jaw and nuzzled him with a greeting before getting up and stepping away to full stretch himself out, shaking sleep from his limbs and flapping his wings a few times. Toothless did the same, but not before giving him a very wet lick across his snout that left saliva dripping down his jaw. He recoiled a little and shook the liquid off his scales, gurgling annoyedly at his closest friend. Silently, the two of them prepared for what was to come.
They were to inspect the two-legs nest and try to find a different rest spot for the return journey before continuing on, without alerting them to their presence, which sounded easy enough, but Small-Claw still felt a little unsure as Cloud-leaper came over to them, the woman at his side, stretching and yawning. She said something, but he didn't really understand what was said anyway, as the scale-wing beside her spoke to them both.
"We find sleep-nest for fly back to King. My two-leg-" Cloud-leaper said something and grunted annoyedly, "Break scale-wing-hunt-claws." He sounded annoyed at the plan; Small-Claw realising she was going to make sure the vikings on the island couldn't hurt other scale-wings for a few cycles or something similar by breaking things.
Toothless crooned excited and rubbed their sides together as they braced to take off, and he couldn't help but feel it a little too - realising his twin had quite the similar propensity to do things that made his life-fire burn out of his chest - which made him happy. They made a good pair of daredevil rulebreakers, he thought, absently.
Cloud-leaper barked at the two which quickly got them standing to attention, probably sensing that Small-Claw was about to pounce on him and start playing. Rightly he was, because he was staring at Toothless' tail and growling a little at it before he'd been stopped. They quickly moved themselves, getting low to the ground to brace to leap off and fly, waiting for the four-wings lead. He'd been told a little about this sort of thing; each time small groups of scale-wings left the nest, the most senior would be designated as leader and the closest on each of his wings would be the youngest, so as to not create drag with older, possibly slower scale-wings at the back. Whilst more experienced, aged kin had a tendency to fly more... leisurely.
In a single wingbeat he was up with the others, quickly coming to the coasting height that would definitely make it impossible for a two-leg to spot them. He made sure not to get overly close to Cloud-leaper but not far enough that he'd lose sight of Toothless in the darkness that perfectly hid his scales. He certainly was in his element. Small-Claw kept close as they quickly sped around their small land they landed on and made course for the viking nest. The only sound up in the night that he could hear was the occasional whistling the wings made as they flapped, and the light breathing of the two-leg on the four-wings back.
His life-fire swelled in his chest a little as they got closer to the nest. Even high up as he was, Small-Claw could easily make out the village. He couldn't remember the name of it for the life of him, but that did not matter to him now. Quickly assessing it, he found they had very little in the way of defenses. They had no long-claws or high-nests, and their water-trees were for fishing and not fighting, there were none of the round wood things on the sides that told him that.
They went lower, slowly and carefully at Cloud-leapers lead. The two-leg occasionally pointed with her staff before she muttered something to him, lost to the wind behind them, but they started to glide, downward. Eyes constantly swiveling, all he could do was follow and watch. The two-leg woman silently started to move on his back and he watched, bewildered, but unable to make a noise as they got lower, and lower to the ground of the nest, and she leapt from the four-wings back and slid down the straw top of a nest without a sound, before disappearing.
Small-Claw wanted to ask questions, but it would have to wait. Toothless and Cloud-leaper lifted up again, riding a pleasant thermal generated from all of the fire in the two-leg nests and they lifted high enough to talk again, apparently, the four-wing burbling back at them.
"Night-One's search for new rest, I track my two-leg." He barked a small congratulation to them, seemingly impressed they'd not managed to mess up thus far, and they split off from each other. Toothless came to his left wingtip while Cloud-leaper disappeared off behind them to most likely circle the two-leg.
He gave a little excited warble to his brother and resisted the urge to race now they were no longer being supervised, but quickly contained himself as they had a task to complete. Toothless took the lead here for him, and he fell in behind him quickly, and his larger counterpart quickly led them both around the far edge of the island, Small-Claw taking in everything he could beneath them. The nest had one large building at the top of a hill, and he could see a few two-legs coming and going, barely picking up a trail that led off into the woods behind it. He focused on it and followed it as they went, finding that, much to his expectations, it was a well-travelled hunting route for the two leggeds. He spotted no other small-nests in the forest, and Toothless seemed to have a similar realisation, quickly taking them towards a water source.
It was near the outer edge of the island, and the trails tapered off to the other areas of the island - but prey always needed water, so it would not be safe for a long period if the two-legs went hunting again. Just in the quiet hours before prey were awake, but it might be enough. Small-Claw let out a happy purr and nudged Toothless' wing, but his friend shook his head and warbled warning. He frowned a little, the small sound dropping from his chest and he looked down again as they circled the small forested clearing. It reminded him a little of the cove, but instead of being walled all the way round, it was more of a rocky crescent than a full clearing. He let out a loose growl as he spotted what his friend warned him about.
There was a shine of metal as the moon reflected off of something in the grass, a trap; and it was much too big to be for small-prey, and there was something in the centre of it. It wasn't the same colour as the grass around it, and even from this high, Small-Claw could smell it - a rather sizable pile of fish.
"Some hungry nest-mates not see as good as Night-One, only scent and look fish." Toothless growled, and Small-Claw let out a long groan. That was cruel. He pushed the thought out of his mind for a moment and shook it free.
"We land there still? I have thought." Toothless made a sound of apprehension, but Small-Claw didn't stop, dipping down and carefully alighting on a rock far from the metal-teeth-trap and the fish, looking intently. He had a feeling that he could do something about this awful thing that snapped up scale-wings for being hungry, but didn't quite recognise what exactly it was that he could do. Toothless flew a circle overhead and yapped at him, but quickly came in to land, barking anger, caution.
Small-Claw ignored him, moving himself a little closer. His sharp eyes picked up the chain and then the thin bar of shiny rock running between with a round thing in the middle, there was an idea forming slowly, his two-leg memories surfacing a little to let him know how to get rid of the torturous contraption. Small-Claw didn't even need his memories to know that this wasn't something to kill a scale-wing, it was to inflict as much pain for as long as possible before it died. The idea of it was cruel, and was making him angry. He didn't even register the growl as he leaned down, reaching a paw out grabbing a long-stick in the grass beside him and jabbing it at the centre of the metal jaws, making sure his foreleg was gone before he got hurt. The 'thwip' of air and the 'clang' of the metal thing as its mouth shut on the stick. The fish were disturbed a little, flopping lifelessly to the ground and into the grass.
Turning back, he looked at Toothless, who seemed to be absolutely furious, if not a little bit amazed. He snapped at him and swatted at the back of his head, letting out a long growl. Small-Claw rose up on his hind legs and didn't let Toothless pin him, shaking his head and snapping at him to his friends' surprise. He quickly ducked down and let out a huffing mewl, turning his head to the trap to gesture to Toothless.
"Look! No more metal-thing, fish for us!" Small-Claw yapped to his twin, purring pride and rumbling louder and louder to his confused kin, who just grunted at him and smacked his head again.
"You not do small-head thing like that again, lose paw or head!" Toothless growled at him, swatting and bapping a paw on the side of his head, to his annoyance, making his snout scrunch up. But Small-Claws happiness seemed to quell his worry, as he relented soon after, staring at the food he'd rescued instead.
Small-Claw eyed the fish pile and huffed a breath of air out - he was hungry. He imagined Cloud-leaper and Toothless and maybe the two-leg were to, so instead used his toothed maw to drag the massive thing out of the way of the pile of fish while his twin just stared at him, a little surprised at what he'd done, but now his gaze averted to the fish pile instead, making Small-Claw roll his eyes with a light grin. He sent a small look at his friend and huffed.
"Cloud-leaper find us like this?" He asked, and Toothless nodded with a whuff of breath, before scanning the rest of the small clearing.
"We keep some-fish here for kin… no eat all." Small-Claw warbled playfully as his larger counterpart crept towards the pile of fish, turning around to growl at him before he came closer to it. Once he was safely near to it, he grabbed a mawful of the slightly stale fish and seemed to find them satisfactory, but didn't sit to eat, instead sitting away near the rock Small-Claw landed on. Small-Claw himself padded over gently and nabbed a single small fish from the pile, and slowly chewed on the small food with a quiet purr, looking around their clearing for a while. It felt a lot less secure than the inlet they had been in, and that still wasn't ideal - the small water looked to have trickled all the way down the rocky edge of the hill they faced away from eating their meagre meal, the pile of fish close enough to the edge of the water.
The rocks went high up and the side that wasn't covered in stone led into a dense forest that looked a lot more ominous from the ground, even with his fantastic sight.
Small-Claw growled a little bit and looked to Toothless, who was ravenously devouring his meal before licking his muzzle clean.
"We… stay here long?" Small-Claw asked, using his claws to rake up the dirt, he very much disliked this. Something about the metal-thing upset him and made his life-fire soften slightly. Toothless shook his head.
"Not think. Just not fly all way to Queen nest in one wing, too far. Why?" He purred, tilting his head to the side and frowning. Small-Claw shook his head and whined under his breath, pulling his tail into himself and curling up slightly. He thought for a moment. Where he lived as a two-leg, they'd never done anything like this, and sometimes it was barely a light-cycle before they were under attack again, this kind of thing spoke of cruelty to him; even at his nest, things like this were not set up there. He thought a little harder - a waste of metal… and did not serve the purpose of surviving that was the only thought they had in their heads.
Small-Claw sighed and looked at his brother, who was eyeing him worriedly, but had not come any closer.
"Not like this two-legs. Metal-thing not for help live, for hurt scale-wing. Want go other nest." Small-Claw grumbled out, scraping the ground beneath him and tearing up the greenery. His tail swayed behind him with how anxious it was making him to stay here. Toothless quickly responded with a careful purr and he rolled over to get closer to him with a goofy grin, making Small-Claw roll his eyes but shuffle closer to his kin.
"Tooth-less keep you safe, Four-Flyer keep you safe, two-leg keep you safe." Toothless curled his tail around Small-Claws and nodded at his growled promise. It helped him relax, if only a little, but that was enough. The junior Night-One grumbled and looked around again, the forest looking and feeling safer than it had before he'd been reassured. Small-Claw grunted and rested his head on his forepaws, thinking again. He thought of their journey to come, and mapped out the rest of it, if only to keep himself occupied from boredom and worry. This island had been closest to their nest, and the next stop would bring them to a smaller island, with a bigger two-leg nest on it from what he remembered, though that memory in particular was very fuzzy; he had been a hatchling two-leg last he visited. They had a lot of food-prey they kept, and a lot of sharp-claws to defend them with, he reasoned, so they should stop there for as little as possible before going on, perhaps not at all with how dangerous it might be.
Then they would have to fly to his two-leg nest. He could remember that most of the nest was packed in tightly, closely on one face of the mountain that took most of the land up, and that almost all of it outside of that was empty; all prey-animals either kept near the nest or hunted until there was nothing left. Small-Claw ruminated on his feelings towards what had once been his own nest, and found very little. Anxiety for resting there even if for a night, fear of what might happen if they were caught, but nothing else. He'd been a Night-One for a full season now, nearly and despite missing some of the things he had been able to do, he found mostly that his life had only improved. Small-Claw had Toothless, and a nest of scale-wings that would protect him unconditionally, which is much more than when he'd been a scrawny, defenseless two-leg. He couldn't even shoot fire yet, and he was confident that he could either escape or defend himself from some threats that would've killed him before. This was better, and he was happier and felt safer. Which prompted some confusion for why he'd originally even had this idea, to sally out and find the queen who took thoughts from scale-wings and in turn, food from two-legs.
Small-Claw was only able to think for a few more moments before he was roused from it, shaking his head and preparing to escape, before noticing what had tugged him from his head was simply the four-flyer and his two-leg again. She smelt of anger as she leapt from her mount, who followed her behind a ways as she stomped into their clearing, waving her stick around and yelling at nothing. Toothless and Small-Claw watched the two-leg display, both wearing confused frowns, before Cloud-leaper filled them in.
"Two-legs have many, lots spike-jaws and false-claws. Heads of scale-wings above their nests." The four flyer paused and a dark look crossed him, before he grunted at him and Toothless.
"Keep hatchlings in cages, for sire and dam to…" He trailed off, and this idea brought a snarling growl from Toothless, which surprised Small-Claw; finding much more empathy in his friend than usual. He only felt shocked and sad, before crooning towards the four-flyer.
"We find 'spike-jaw' here, too. Under fish, for scale-wings to get eaten by." Small-Claw spoke sadly, tossing his head back to gesture to the metal lump off behind the two-leg, who was simply staring at the ground through her mask, the anger now sadness. He felt it too and stood up, padding over to her slowly and pushing his head beneath her hand, purring into it and tilting his snout back to look into her eyes through the tiny gaps in the mask. She said something, sounding regretful, before petting his frills slowly with a paw. Small-Claw just tried to look compassionate and nodded his head, nuzzling against her scritches and huffing at her determinedly.
He had felt a little bad, bringing her from the nest; it had been even more difficult to explain the idea to her. It felt like he'd spent cycles in her nest-cave before she understood, but he knew she didn't actually grasp the idea of what he wanted to do; he didn't need to remember the language to know she felt this was some strange ritual for him and he'd wanted her along. Small-Claw didn't know if she knew that this was an attempt to free everyone from the Queen, but she was able to handle herself if she'd slipped in and out of a vast two-leg nest, even with her four-flyer. The regret at taking her fell away however, as he saw her like this - determined to help scale-wings at risk to herself, angry at their treatment from two-legs. But he knew she couldn't see past that; she could not see further than helping now and moving on. Maybe he could help her there.
The two-leg scratched idly along the plates and frills on the sides of his jaw, a rolling purr coming from him before he heard a huff behind him and Toothless nudged against her other side. If it was good enough for Small-Claw, it was good enough for him, it seemed, even if he was a little untrustful before of the two-leg in their nest. They sat there a few moments, the only sounds their breathing and the rough scratching of her paws on their scales, before she stopped and left them. Seeing nowhere better for it, Small-Claw simply flopped onto the ground with a thud and spread himself out, stretching a little.
Which, of course, prompted Toothless to pounce him, growling play, very lightly snapping at his snout as always. Toothless' paw pushed down on his chest, pushing past his own forelegs and he let out a yowl of pain, curling up and groaning into the grass as he covered himself from his likeness, who bounced backward almost in a flinch. He felt the soft snout nudging at his side and warbling worry, fear, before he launched his own attack. Unwrapping from himself he tackled Toothless with his forelegs and rolled the stunned scale-wing onto his back with a triumphant growl, very quickly pinning him down and giving what he hoped was a very cocky smile. Small-Claw grinned down at his twin, and watched realisation hit him, and felt Toothless squirming beneath him as he tried to get back up.
"You small-head! Small-Claw big-head!" He cooed down at his friend with triumph and play intertwined with it. Toothless redoubled his efforts, and very quickly he was back on the ground, pinned beneath his brother, but head already won in his mind, despite being belly-down underneath him. Small-Claw heard a small growl from above and then he felt his brother's tongue on his sensitive neck fins, making him twitch and claw at the ground. His claws couldn't reach them, no matter how he contorted, and this was the only way other than rubbing against something else. Unfortunately it also made them very sensitive and almost ticklish, so Small-Claw was very quickly yowling and groaning as he raked the dirt up.
Toothless stopped eventually, when he'd satisfied his small grudge, and Small-Claw quickly rolled back up, huffing some. He wanted to play more, but Cloud-leaper let out a warning growl at them both before curling up near his two-leg.
"Rest. Fly before next light." The four-flyer left no room for argument, and leaned down to sleep. Small-Claw huffed a little; he had quite a bit of energy, but knew he should rest. The two-legs companion seemed of two minds. Sometimes he was confused and amicable, and others he was cold and demanding. It confused Small-Claw.
Flying was still tiring for him. Toothless quickly moved himself and assumed a position under a tree at the edge of their landing area and lifted a wing, his head already down and resting on his paws as he waited for Small-Claw to move in, which he did gratefully. He nudged himself in close as he could with Toothless, and rested his head beneath his brothers before shutting his eyes. He was still on edge, but knew they'd be safe for a little at least.
Sleep came, a fog of exhaustion rolling over Small-Claw's tired body, and he sunk into the warmed grass beneath him and the scales behind him with a low purr. The night slowly left them and the sky-fire lifted over the horizon. The four-flyer and two-leg had left them at some point, he'd realised in his sleep, mostly unconsciously as he'd heard wingbeats, but Toothless had only wrapped a wing over him tighter in their restive state.
Something caught his attention, barely awake and wrapped underneath his brother. Small-Claw moved himself carefully and pushed his head outside of Toothless' wing, and wriggled his ear plates a little to listen better. There was nothing for a few moments, just the quiet chorus of birds, the splashing of running water, and the rustling of leaves in the trees. If he strained a little more, he could hear the hooves of some prey nearby.
There! Something creaked, something that wasn't a tree or a bush. Small-Claw tensed a little and let out the quietest growl he could, nudging his body against Toothless' sleeping form to carefully rouse him. The quietest exhale of breath and then a light tug of something - a claw-thrower- a bow. There was a two-leg in the woods very close to them with a bow. He took a deep breath and nudged his twin again with a low growl, making sure it was indistinguishable from a small motion in his sleep. Small-Claw made sure he wasn't showing how utterly tense he was; every muscle in his body was coiled, prepared to leap at the smallest noise.
Beside him, Toothless let a low warble out and Small-Claw quickly nudged him, grunting danger and nestling into his chest, hoping that he understood. Judging by how he didn't move and instead rested his head closer against his, he did.
"You have plan?" Toothless growled under his breath, disguising it as a low yawn, subtly lifting his wing off of Small-Claw, which would let him move if he needed to. The smaller Night-One flinched as the two-leg sucked in a tight breath, and he could easily scent the fear now. A deep breath from his powerful nose told him a little more, but whoever this two-leg was it was obvious he was a hunter. Small-Claw could barely scent the two-leg beneath whatever he'd covered himself with to avoid prey animals smelling him, but he knew he was a two-leg, and the distinct smell of metal on him meant he wasn't there to befriend them.
"Us need move. Find Cloud-leaper and fly… you know where is?" Small-Claw asked, still trying to be quiet. Toothless grumbled no. His life-fire was starting to roar in his ears again as he tried to think of what to do. He didn't know what the projectile could do to him. The very little experience he'd had with two-leg fighting was with the long sharp-claws they had, he'd not been hit with one of these yet and wasn't sure what it might do - Toothless being concerned did not bode well.
Small-Claw gave a loud yawn and lifted his head, tilting it back so he could crack his eyes open ever so slightly and risk the look around. He knew where the scent was from and barely managed to capture the glint of the claw in the greenery in front of them before lowering his head again and smacking his lips.
Everything was quiet for a moment before Toothless grumbled again.
"I run, you run. Away." Toothless growled, leaving no room for him to argue. Small-Claw gave a nod and braced himself, slowly digging his claws into the ground and taking a slow breath in. There was a cold silence in the air as Toothless made the most imperceptible twitch, and jolted up, snarling into the cold morning air and leaping clear of him, his wings lifting him up into the cool morning air.
Small-Claw moved and quickly did the same, growling a warning at the two-leg hunter. He heard the light 'twang' and then a whistling noise and almost froze on the spot, letting out a sharp growl and lowering his body to the ground sharply, barely feeling the wind whistle over his spinal fins as he scrambled towards the trees, some cover so he could hide.
Small-Claw let out a growl of shock at himself. What was he doing? He was thinking like a stupid, weak, afraid two-leg as he scrambled to a stop before the treeline, and turned himself with force, bounding up into the air and flying up. Small-Claw almost wanted to slam his head into a tree out of irritation. Even though he'd thought he was past the worst of this kind of behaviour, it turned out not matter how much he tried to convince himself he was doing better, he was still a runty two-leg in his head.
Small-Claw quickly lifted himself up into the air and followed Toothless' lead, banking out of their abandoned resting spot and flapping hurriedly to pull in behind him. If he'd seen what had happened, he made no indication as they quickly ascended up into the clouds. They steadied out high above the land below them and Toothless spared a glance back at him, but Small-Claw couldn't read his expression. He hoped he wasn't worried for him, as usual.
"How we find nestmates?" Small-Claw barked into the air, his life-fire still burning in his chest, the fear of a two-leg having crept up on them like they were horned-prey was still fresh, and he tried to shake it off. Instead focusing on the air passing over his scales, and how it buffeted and pushed on his body, minute adjustments kept him level as he sped across the sky alongside his best friend, the sky-fire rising higher as morning was signalled. Toothless looked around and gave what appeared to be a shrug from behind, but Small-Claw couldn't quite tell from his position. He too looked around, pushing negative thoughts about himself out as he tried to catch that familiar glint of golden red somewhere, anywhere. They circled the island twice, before Toothless barked and started a descent towards the coast; Small-Claw quickly following after him, in his daze he let his body relax too much, something happening to him. He'd only managed to do it once before, and in his mindless flying he'd forgotten.
A high pitched whistling sound came from nowhere and he whipped his head to and fro, looking side to side in panic. Was it another scale-wing? Was it a two-leg claw? His mind raced as he almost span in their descent, before Toothless snarled at him in the air with panic and fear. Small-Claw frowned and tried to look behind him, before he realised where he'd heard that sound before, and hurriedly adjusted his flaps and fins manually, the whistle cutting off after some changes and he wanted to blush. That tell-tale sound had most likely let everyone on the island know they were there, but also served to reunite them with their nestmates. Small-Claw saw them flapping up to meet them, and he could almost make out the angered scowl that Cloud-leaper was wearing on his features from this high up, and he doubted the two-leg was fine with this as well.
They quickly got back into their flying formation and Small-Claw grimaced, nobody making a sound as they adjusted and banked towards the next island, visible on the horizon. They couldn't come back to this nest for a long time, thanks to him and his slip up. At least neither of the Night-Ones were hurt by that hunter in the forest, he thought to himself. Two-legs were as sneaky as they were cruel. Small-Claw let out a little growl and then sighed, and swiveled his head around to inspect their surroundings, trying to ignore his nestmates while he could in the air. He spotted the floating two-leg wood-nests in the water beneath them, barely making them out on it like ants. Further into the water he found water-dwelling scale-wings, their bodies easy to make out from this high up, dancing through the blue in wild patterns. He wondered if the two-legs knew how close they were to their mortal enemies, or if thats why they went out on their wood-nests; to kill them.
The more Small-Claw thought on two-legs, everything he knew and all the instinct rattling around in his scaled head, the less and less empathy he found for them. Two-legs could not survive without their tools and tricks; their nests and their false-claws. Their stolen-furs kept them warm and their ability to create fire like a scale-wing almost made sure they lived in bitter winter cycles. They ruined wherever they went and only thought of themselves, never thinking outside of the need to survive and kill until they wanted to be cruel. Two-legs weren't all evil, he knew, but if he knew he could not think of them as anything other than adversaries, even if they technically had the same goal. That hunter was always going to try and kill them, even if Small-Claw knew it to be difficult with his thick scales. It had taken a hard fall from the sky and luck to shear off his brother's tailfin; one of the weaker parts of their body. The fact that it scared him still was both good and bad in his mind: good, because fear would help him survive, and bad because he could not run from every single fight even if he wanted to.
The silent flight dragged on, the sky-fire almost at its highest, and he cursed himself inwardly. Night-Ones should not be flying in the light. His scales tingled at the uncomfortable feeling that everything below them was staring upwards, watching their flight to the next two-leg nest, which seemed impossibly far for how long he thought them to be flying by now. He heaved a sigh and looked between the Four-flyer, the two-leg stood proudly as ever on him, and his twin who was flying a wing length away from him. Small-Claw loosed a gentle warble of regret, apology, mistake, but there was no indication anyone heard him. Toothless sent him a look with the eye facing him on the side of his snout, and an worried smile, before looking back ahead.
Their flight took them slowly but surely towards the next two-leg nest, and as it drew closer, their nest's two-leg appeared more on edge.
Cloud-leaper flared his wings a little and pulled between Small-Claw and Toothless who adjusted quickly, flapping alongside him.
"We have to fly all-light before landing. We not land at this two-leg nest, next nest." Cloud-leaper grunted at them, loud enough over the wind. He turned his head and glared at Small-Claw, who resisted the urge to whine from being clearly scolded, but he didn't defend himself. The four-flyer straightened out again and looked forwards, before growling.
"Two-leg nests ahead will know soon. We keep ahead, less rest." The barked order gave no room for argument, Small-Claw giving a low rumble of agreement and hearing Toothless' own from a wing away. The four-wing seemed agitated, and knew that as soon as they landed he'd be in for a scolding. He resigned himself to it without any complaints, understanding he'd messed up. Trust him to mess up.
Toothless gave another look at him, as if he knew what he was thinking, and he met his eyes.
That spark flared up again, and he realised that it was like his life-fire was pushed out past his eyes and he was seeing Toothless' own, flaring up to meet him. It was like the first look they'd shared and the glimpses of the rest of it. But this was as if their life-fire's seeked each other out, and wanted them closer to one another, and Small-Claw could understand every flicker the flame made in his eyes. The wind rushing over his ear-fins faded out around him and he almost wanted to whimper at what he found in his brother's eyes.
Care, worry, love, fear, all for him.
Then, as quick as it happened, it was gone.
The sound grew in around him again, like wool had been covering his ears and it slipped away. He heard the feather-flyers calling and he heard the wingbeats of his nestmates. Small-Claw's own faltered at the incredible sensation, and he nearly fell from the sky with a sudden, deep breath. Toothless seemed shocked also, but didn't fall like Small-Claw had, only missed a single wingbeat before continuing on. He snapped his head back towards his brothers, but only felt the smallest simmering warmth before Toothless looked away. The rest of their flight was eventless; as if the world around them had emptied after their moment of closeness, and Small-Claw ached inside, afraid. Afraid that he would never find that link again, that he wouldn't be able to bring it forth and feel what his closest friend was feeling; but that tiny glimpse of warmth made him sure he was wrong. Small-Claw hated this indecisiveness but the empty air gave him not much else to think on.
Their small flock flew until the sun began to drop, and Small-Claw felt as if his wings were being tugged from his body with each wing beat. He'd never flown a full day before and even with all the practice he'd had, it was like the wind was trying to unsocket the bones in his wings. The other two didn't look to have noticed his state, exhausted, and he did not want them to stop for him, he wouldn't let them stop for him. Not when the nest they wanted to land upon was so close and the tiny lands around it were unsafe. Littered with tiny two-leg dwellings like ants upon a hill. If he weren't so tired, and if it weren't so bright still, he would like to have glided lower to them as his curiosity demanded. Or maybe he wanted to scare them like the hunter scared him, to remind the two-legs that he wasn't prey.
The sun dipped below the horizon as they began to lap the largest land-nest below them a fourth time, well above the clouds. Small-Claw had no way of knowing whether or not they'd been spotted, but he knew Cloud-leaper would not take them to land if there was danger, especially for his two-leg. He'd given up trying to make sense of their partnership - it was much closer to how he saw sires and dams behave than how he and Toothless did. But perhaps that was the difference - she was a two-leg after all. Were he still a two-leg, would that be the same for him and Toothless?
Small-Claw sighed. This line of thinking would not get him anywhere. He wasn't a two-leg and wouldn't be a two-leg again.
The flight path changed as soon as it was dark, the Night-One's scales matching the chilled spring blackness. They soared downward in a slow spiral, Cloud-leaper taking them to the peak of the smallest mountain on the human nest, and beforehand Small-Claw had not noticed a very small ledged cavern on the mountain; their landing zone. This was much better than being on the ground he reasoned and tried to alight upon the rock with grace for once, if only to avoid attention from the four-flyer. But no sooner had they all landed and the two-leg dismounted, than Cloud-leaper rounded on him with a barely restrained growl, snapping close to his face.
"You want be killed by two-leg? Scale-shorn and grounded? You tell whole nest we there!" The four-winged kin snapped at Small-Claw, who only reared back and curled in on himself in shame, trying to push his tail over his eyes and extending the fins to hide from the onslaught of barked growls. Toothless looked apprehensive to defend him but still sent a snarl their way, tail waving behind him, but did not come closer from his spot on the ledge of their cave - even the two-leg woman didn't come closer to help.
Small-Claw shook his head and whined, crawling backwards until his rump was on the cold stone of the cave wall, Cloud-leapers display of anger scaring his life-fire small and weak in his belly as he tried to curl in on himself. He'd seen fights in the nest occur and didn't know if this would come to that - he'd done something wrong, yes - but surely not enough to warrant a fight. Small-Claw shook his head, and quickly changed his stance, scenting the four-flyer in front of him as he did so; the scent similar to all scale-wings but overlapping a little with his two-legs and the smell of something… flowery. He waited and focused for as long as he could with the scale-wing barreling down on him, but only found worry, and not the distinct sharp fight scent he'd discovered. Small-Claw took a deep breath and stood a little normally, shutting his eyes to keep his focus, worried he'd collapse back into a bundle of shaking scales and lose his confidence. He then barked loudly at Cloud-leaper and growled at him, the low trilling croon underneath it hinting apology but the growl signalled defiance. Small-Claw opened his eyes, having drawn up to a more normal height and huffed at the now faltered four-flyer.
"I made mistake, forgot could made sound like that!" He barked in the four-flyers countenance, and he spotted Toothless behind Cloud-leaper, almost laughing. Small-Claw kept his focus - he wouldn't let himself be weak like when he was a two-leg. He would not let others walk over him, he would have his voice heard.
The four-flyer pulled back and grunted at him, a little taken aback and Small-Claw preened a little, pushing his chest out.
"You still not should make sound. Small-head fledgling."
Small-Claw ignored the four-flyer until he shook his head and crept back over to the two-leg, who had watched the interaction with apprehension. Toothless looked between them and slid closer with alittle purr, saying nothing but beaming at him proudly and rubbing their snouts together. The smaller rolled his eyes and purred back gently, before shuffling back and laying down on the cool stones, and looking out of the mouth of their cave-nest at the slowly darkening night.
"What Small-Claw think?" His likeness warbled to him, seated aside, paws stretched out and head resting on his forelegs. He shrugged.
"Two-legs do us bad - hurt scale-wings for just to hurt." Small-Claw grumbled quietly, their cave silent aside from the scale-wings breathing and the quiet humming of the two-leg.
"But still want help two-leg?"
Small-Claw nodded and sighed loudly, wrapping his tail around him and covering himself with his aching wings. He wanted to sleep. Toothless purred at him and nodded back.
"Odd hatchling." The larger cooed, amusement.
Berk was abuzz with activity when the news hit them; a messenger vessel had docked in the late afternoon, hailing from one of the far islands of the archipelago with word that not one, but two Night Furies had been spotted heading east - towards them. Every tribe had been alerted by the fastest ships in the Bloodyhead's fleet; fortunate enough that they had some of the best shipwright's in the region, and that it was a strong wind that day.
The Chief had ordered every able-bodied Viking doing drills, from sunrise to sunset almost every single day, no excuses. He'd also ordered three new towers to be built on the higher points of his island, and ensured that as many torches were lit at night, with double the patrols.
Amongst the panicked people, Astrid Hofferson, almost immediately after the news reached her, had sprinted for the cove where she'd last seen the two Night Furies, she had to know if they were there. Finding nothing, the next course of action was to tell her Chief - she had a duty to her island, to her people and herself to give this crucial information to him.
If only she could get her thrice-damned legs to pull her from a spherical rock by the water of the cove to go and tell him. She'd convinced herself utterly - people could be killed if she did not tell Stoick. A child might wander into the forest and be devoured; a hunter might venture here looking for trapped prey and find only the offspring of lightning and death.
Or maybe, they'd find Hiccup, a small voice called to her.
Astrid lifted her axe and slammed the head of it into the dirt by her foot with a loud snarl, exerting herself to drive one side of it into the ground almost to the shaft.
She flexed her hands into fists, so tight her nails dug into her palms.
Hiccup was dead. Night Fury be damned, the scrawny, useless teenager was dead. She was still losing this fight, and Astrid did not lose, she couldn't lose, not now. Everything she'd ever known as a Viking was on the line, and she was not prepared to abandon her very being for some, some worthless, inept, frail child if it could cost her the village. His mind might be locked in the Night Fury body, or whatever Hel-cursed existence he had now, but that changed little.
Hiccup was a dragon, and Vikings killed dragons. It is what they do, and Astrid was a viking in every sense of the word. The next time they met, she would remove his head from his stubby, thick neck without a single thought, Chief's son or not.
Shorter chapter this time around.
Been thinking of how I'm going to bridge events together as I've thought of them, so new chapters might be slower, or not! I've really pushed these out, and I've set quite a pace, huh?
I hope you guys like what I'm putting out.