A/N:
Whew, finally worked out the last chapter. It practically wrote itself, but I had to fiddle with it endlessly. Thank you VigoGrimborne for sticking it out with me as my beta buddy and offering insightful feedback from start to finish. And thank you, dear reader, for reading along, especially to those who left some feedback.

Deadly-Bagel, "Mmm, exposition" – gods darn it, I was hoping to slide it past you! And I suppose that replacing Toothless with Frost would be very left field indeed lol. Is that foreshadowing of things to come in your story? :P

TheStriga, Thanks, it's nice to be back among the living. I started with a basic storyboard, a list of bullets for general plot and character points to include, but as I was writing the story, it became more and more obvious that Frost was the main character as her journey was the most life-changing and involved the most personal growth.

Integrated

Toothless was jolted awake by a sharp stinging on one of his sensor lobes. He shot up, teeth out, claws scratching against the stone of the cave floor.

As he lifted his head, he saw what he both hoped and feared. Frost stood at the mouth of the cave, stance low, snarling with a look of pure murder in her eyes that flicked between Vicious and the eggs she was brooding over. There was no doubt that her mind had been fixed and that her maternal instinct was moving her with full force.

She was a stubborn dragon who always wanted most to be in control of her own fate, but maybe, if she saw the great sea dragon's influence and the sting-tail's venom as tools that she used… What land-strider ever gave credit for a kill to his sword, or to the hammer that formed it?

Vicious snarled back, in no way dissuaded from standing her ground over what she had taken to be her clutch. Her aid was necessary in protecting the eggs while Frost had remained, and she had every reason to assume the clutch as her own in the many days since Frost had left.

She sent a quick death glare at Toothless to ensure that he was taking her place in brooding over the eggs. This was her fight, not his, and he knew that there was nothing he could do to deter them. Even if he tried to intervene, they would simply kill him before turning their rage on each other again.

Toothless still had no clue who he wanted to win the fight.

Frost and Vicious leaped at each other, shrieking and roaring, clawing and biting.

A couple nights ago, that one foreign land-strider, Confident, had shared a story with Firefly. In the end, Firefly decided to share it with Toothless, though he didn't see how it could be applied to this situation.

In this story, there was once a land-strider alpha who had to make an important decision. Two dams had approached him, each holding a new hatchling, one alive and the other dead. The dam with the dead hatchling claimed that it was not hers, that while she slept, the other dam accidentally suffocated her hatchling and switched it with the living one.

The alpha had to decide if this was truth or a lie, and he did not have a dragon's senses to smell a lie or feel it in the passive mental hum emitted by all land-striders. If he chose wrong, aside from rewarding deception and harming the innocent, he would have greatly harmed his image in the sight of all of his subjects as he was still quite young. Even if he chose right, how could he know, and how could his subjects know that they could trust him?

He commanded the dam who held the living child to set it down before him and then drew out a large shiny claw, declaring that he would cleave the thing in half, and each dam could have half of what they were both fighting over. The reaction from each dam to such a proclamation made the truth painfully clear in the eyes of all present, and he was able to restore the living hatchling to its actual dam, establishing himself as a very wise and reliable alpha.

Toothless saw how he could do the very same thing. However, instead of learning which dragon saw this clutch as hers – he already knew that both felt that way with equally unyielding conviction and valid justification – he would split it in half as that one land-strider alpha threatened to do with a single hatchling.

Both Frost and Vicious were still fighting with murderous intensity, bleeding heavily, neither willing to yield and flee. Every bite to a leg was met with snapping at the neck. Every claw to the belly was met with a painful shove into hard stone.

Toothless grabbed an egg in his toothless maw and flicked his head with a warning bark. Both dams instantly froze as they watched the egg fly through the air at them. Vicious hastily twisted around and retracted her teeth to catch the egg, snarling and whining in the process, careful and gentle as only a dam could be in handling the delicate thing. She didn't even have time to deposit it on the ground before another egg was flying towards them, and Frost leaped to grab it. Another egg, and Vicious snatched it and gently laid it down alongside the other one she had caught.

Toothless knew that he would shed some scales from the stress of this situation… if he survived it. If any of the eggs were damaged, if one of the dams ever failed to catch a single egg, it would be his fault, and they would instantly kill him before resuming their fight to the death over the clutch.

When the last egg flew at them and was caught by Frost, who gently placed it on the ground with the other two, Toothless collapsed bonelessly to the ground, tongue hanging out, panting. He lived.

They lived.

Both dams glared and snarled at each other as they curled around their own half clutch of three eggs. In unison, they ceased their bickering and started purring as they inspected and licked at the eggs, gently nudging them around to inspect and appreciate them. Again, at the same instant, they both shot a sour glare at Toothless, who could only offer a relieved gummy smile from his belly-up position.

He forced himself to his paws and walked over to them, moving back and forth, licking at their many injuries. In his own estimation, he couldn't tell who would have won the fight, but he had a suspicion that they would have killed each other had he not intervened.

A long while later, he was satisfied that he did everything he could to help them recover physically. He took a brief moment to project his senses so that a dragon could pass the sight on to Firefly, who sighed and shouted and cheered and collapsed in a relieved heap.

Toothless left the cave and spread his wings to fetch fish for them. Neither dam would dare strike out at the other for fear of harming any eggs, and for that same reason, they were both stuck there in that position. Over time, he and Firefly both hoped that the dams would learn to tolerate each other, maybe even respect each other.

As Firefly said, from the other side of the island where he lay face-up on a stony path with land-striders curiously staring down at him, "Time and love can mend even the deepest wounds."

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Toothless looked worriedly between Frost and Vicious. They had managed to coexist these past few days in a tense silence. One of them would feel comfortable enough to leave as Toothless took her spot in brooding over her half of the clutch, and only after she came back and settled down would the other consider doing the same.

He knew where this would lead. Each dam was drawing closer to her half clutch and farther from the other, regularly licking the eggs to establish her scent. The eggs would hatch, and each dam would care for only the three that came from "her own" eggs. Each hatchling would have its own dam, but its sire would be forced to divide his attention, essentially only half a sire for all. That would be a terrible fate he would never want for his offspring!

He had to mingle the eggs somehow, and he couldn't just project his senses across the island to ask Firefly for ideas. Frost and Vicious would also be able to listen in no matter how much he might be convinced that they were asleep – the one thing they both did at the same time.

Fortunately, the answer was quite obvious, and when Vicious indicated that she wanted Toothless to take over for her clutch, he decided to act. As she began to stand and stretch, he leaned over and gave a slobbery lick between her haunches. A short time after she took off, he cautiously slid himself and the eggs closer to Frost, and he stole a lick between her haunches as well, ignoring her glowering and growling at the eggs she accepted to be no longer hers.

Frost's curiosity lasted only a moment before Toothless bit her belly hard. She jumped with a pained yelp, and even before her paws landed on the ground again, Toothless had already shot out his wings to carefully – and as hastily as possible – drag Frost's and VIcious's eggs together into one pile. Frost nipped and shrieked at him, joined shortly by Vicious, but they dared not do anything too aggressive with Toothless keeping himself between them and the eggs, jostling them and slobbering all over them.

Perhaps, if the dams were willing to cooperate and work together, they could have flanked Toothless to drive him away without risking the eggs. Instead, they were nipping at each other as much as Toothless, competing to be the one to get to the eggs first.

Eventually, Toothless relented and stepped aside, but the sight only frustrated both dams. All six eggs had been mixed up, each looking identical to the next, and each completely drenched with Toothless' saliva that smelled like all three dragons. There wasn't any identifiable brain activity from the developing hatchlings inside, so there was no way to know which egg belonged to who.

The two dams snarled at each other, teeth bared, bodies tensed. Toothless let out a loud shriek to demand their attention, and now that they weren't nearly as frenzied as the original confrontation, they were more willing to pay attention to him.

Toothless looked at Frost with pity. {Your mind was broken, but it is now fixed, and that does not change the fact that you were mated by me and laid these eggs. If that is not enough, the fact that you are alive today and of a sound mind to be a dam is more than enough evidence that you deserve this clutch.}

He looked over at Vicious. {The aid you offered before and after Frost was forced to leave was undeniably critical in preserving these eggs to this day. But they are not your eggs. You may continue to share the burden of brooding over them and raising the hatchlings, but I will not allow you to take it away from Frost. You will cooperate with her peacefully, or we will both drive you out.}

He looked back at Frost, who was growling, her lips quivering. {You will allow Vicious to remain if she accepts my conditions or she and I will drive you out.}

Deception was not a skill that dragons naturally possessed, being literal creatures that would see through any attempts at such, and even after so many years of exposure to land-striders, the stunt that Toothless pulled was stretching the extremes of what he could conjure up on his own. Having had almost no interactions with land-striders, Whatever their response to his ultimatum, there would be no question that it would be genuine.

Eventually, after much staring at each other, Frost and Vicious let out a long exhale in unison and padded towards the eggs. Without ever breaking eye contact, they circled the clutch and curled up around it, nose-to-tail.

Toothless looked proudly between Frost and Vicious. He then started willing them to go to sleep quickly so he could safely leave them to relieve himself outside the cave.

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Hiccup took a swig of water from a skin hanging at his side as he studied the steep, rocky ascent, feeling nervous, excited, worried, and nervous again.

He worked on climbing up, careful of his footing with his prosthetic foot. Astrid's dragon, Surf, had given him a ride halfway so that the hike wouldn't be so long that the stump on his leg would get a rash, but it was important for him to hike the rest alone. This was a very personal and delicate situation, and he didn't want the presence of anyone else, human or dragon, to cause complications.

He reached the top – after cursing his bruised knee that took the fall when his prosthetic slipped on the smooth stone – and stood at the mouth of the cave, hopelessly attempting to pierce the darkness with his eyes.

"Hello?" he called out, an entirely unnecessary formality. He knew who was in there. More importantly, regardless of whether he had been invited and was expected, his proximity was known a long time ago.

Still, his breath caught in his throat when he heard a very familiar chuff from within. His eyes slowly adjusted as he walked into the cave, and just as he was starting to make out the forms within, a shadow leaped and tackled him, pinning him to the ground.

"Hey Bud!" Hiccup cheerily gasped as he reached up to rub Toothless' snout. A slobbery tongue mercilessly assaulted him to the tempo of an excited tail thumping against the ground. Ever since Frost's return, Toothless didn't dare take the time to visit Hiccup and leave the eggs with two discontent dams.

Eventually, Hiccup was allowed to stand, and he looked over at the two dams who were curled around the eggs. "Frost, Vicious, good to see you." He refrained from telling them that he was honored that they would allow him to approach them at their nest, on today of all days, as they could read him like a book without even trying. It would have been insulting to act as if they couldn't.

Toothless and Frost expertly exchanged places in roosting over the eggs, and Frost cautiously padded towards Hiccup. Before her mind was fixed, even seeing or smelling Hiccup through the projected sense of another dragon sent her into a murderous rage. With her mind healed, she had tested the waters in a similar manner and knew that she would be fine around him. She acknowledged and respected Hiccup's support for her and what he had done for her – even if his way of fixing her mind was only a partial solution, a stepping stone if that. That and the fact that Hiccup was very precious to Toothless was all the reason she needed to genuinely want to ensure that she wouldn't kill him – without good cause.

Hiccup stood still, forcing his body to relax, holding one hand out in front of him, allowing her to approach – moving any closer to her eggs uninvited would have been a death wish. Frost tossed a snort over her shoulder at Toothless, who was entirely tensed, ready to spring to action. If anything, she was amused that he was so worried, if not offended that he held any hope that he could react in time to save his rider should Frost turn murderous.

Ever since Frost returned from the Dragon King, it was obvious that the powerful sea dragon's influence and the deathgripper venom had hammered Frost's mind back into shape… at least in the ways that mattered most. Hiccup could see that for himself through the usual updates from Toothless, projected across the island and relayed by a nearby dragon.

Apparently, there was a time when Frost came back with a dead eel dangling from her claws as a food offering for Toothless, and oh how that stirred up the nest! Hiccup wasn't sure if he should find it amusing or worrying that, when Frost's hatchlings would eventually grow up and go off on their own, she intended to grab a rider to protect her mind, fly to Dragon King, and make known her thoughts about that incidental alteration to her mind.

Still, despite all the indirect contact they had with each other through sense projected across the island, Hiccup couldn't keep himself from holding his breath and cringing as Frost strode up to grip his fingers in her teeth, holding eye contact for a while. She then guided him forward, stopping him a few paces away. Hiccup sat, and she nudged Toothless out to resume her perch around the eggs with Vicious. Toothless laid out next to Hiccup.

The dragons knew that today was the day the eggs would hatch through senses Hiccup could never wrap his mind around, but the hour was unknown. The wait was long enough that he had to duck out to relieve himself, approaching again and halting at a warning growl a few paces away.

He knew the signs from having witnessed other clutches hatch. The sire and dams grew excited and started tip-toeing around the clutch, crooning and licking and nipping at each other. One of the eggs started to rock as its occupant fought to break free, blind and acting solely on instinct, its lungs still flooded with fluid.

A crack formed, and the tip of a beak poked through – a bony tip to the snout that would eventually fall off as the head grew. One more push broke the egg in half, and the little hatchling splayed out, coughing and gurgling, eventually starting to breathe on its own. Frost heaved up a small pile of partially digested fish, which the hatchling found its way towards to figure out how to eat, ignorant of the tongue that was dutifully licking the fluids from its hide.

"Huh," Hiccup idly mumbled as he watched. The hatchling was entirely white. "I had expected some combination of black and white. Like maybe spots–"

Three dragons turned to glare at Hiccup, who had the wisdom to stop voicing his thoughts. This was new territory for everyone. Clearly, Light Fury and Night Fury were compatible enough to reproduce, but this hatchling appeared to be a Light Fury through-and-through, not a Night Fury. Hiccup had little confidence in the theory that Light Furys were female and Night Furys were male since, even if Vicious and her clutch didn't blow it out of the water, he caught enough of a glimpse of the hatcling's rear quarters to tell that it was a male. Fishlegs had expressed his confidence that the hatchlings wouldn't be gray since dragons – the wildly colored Nadders being prime examples – didn't blend colors between generations.

Another egg started to rock and crack, music to Hiccup's ears, and another hatchling splayed out, also entirely white, a Light Fury.

Hiccup gave a sideways look at Toothless. "Well, Bud, sorry if you were hoping for a clutch of Night Furies. Maybe next t–"

An egg cracked, and a black form squirmed out, received by Frost the same as the others.

Hiccup grinned at Toothless. "This is gonna drive Fishlegs absolutely insane, I can just feel it."

During all of this, Vicious lay there, sniffing at the hatchlings, simply watching and occasionally nosing at one of them. Another egg cracked, and after a quick sniff, she stood and started to saunter out. To Vicious' nose, the hatchlings smelled wrong. No matter how much she had bonded to the eggs, she instinctively knew that the hatchlings were not her own, and she felt no drive to act as their dam, especially when their actual dam was there to coddle them.

Toothless moved to intercept her. He rubbed his snout against hers with a warble and offered a lick, which she allowed before trotting out of the cave to spread her wings and take off.

"Will she be alright?" Hiccup asked worriedly, having flashbacks of what fate almost fell on Frost when she had been driven out.

Toothless chuffed and nuzzled Hiccup's temple, ruffling his hair with a hard breath. {Vicious knows that I am grateful for her help with the eggs, but this is no loss in her eyes. She has her latest clutch still here. Whether she will stay on these islands or find her way back to Firebrand, even she does not yet know.}

Hiccup puffed out a relieved sigh.

The last two eggs took their time, and Hiccup couldn't stop himself from having flashbacks to several years back, when he saw something that was pure agony to him. In Stormfly's first clutch, one egg rocked as its occupant struggled to break free, only to grow deathly still. Dragons were not creatures that enabled the weak to mingle with the strong. Toothless had to literally grab Hiccup and haul him away to prevent him from messing with the clutch and invoking the dam's wrath.

The final egg broke open to reveal the hatchling within, and Hiccup collapsed in a puddle of contentment.

As the last hatchling finished eating and collapsed in exhaustion, Frost nosed them all into a pile and curled up around them. Toothless gently nosed Hiccup towards the mouth of the cave.

"Ah, right, yes." Hiccup blurted out, coming to himself. "Thank you, Frost, and Toothless, for letting me be here." He hastily departed and cautiously climbed down the steep rocky slope. Toothless would not allow himself to leave the cave when any potential threat to his mate or clutch was nearby, and even Hiccup was seen as such. Toothless would remain there until he knew that Hiccup was a very comfortable distance away.

Hiccup set off at a trot through the forest alone, shouting and whooping with joy the whole way back.

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Nuffink stood on the docks, waving at the departing ship. Onboard were the bad men who had come here to do bad things, but they had learned to change their ways, and some of them had even befriended a dragon. Needless to say, even though their ship was larger than any ever constructed on Berk, there was not much room to spare after accounting for food and water.

It would be an especially uncomfortable journey for Vicious, who had decided that she wanted to go back to the mainland. She knew that trusting her wings over such a stretch would be suicidal in most conditions, and even if she tried the same stunt as Firebrand many years ago in waiting for a large storm and riding that, it would still be very risky. She wasn't accustomed to being around so many land-striders, in a small space, on a flammable ship, but she could fly around whenever she wanted and land to drink and rest, so it would be bearable. One of her hatchlings decided to go to the mainland too, so she did have some company of her own kind.

If all went well, nobody would die.

The boy let his arm down as it began to tire, and he leaned into a dragon at his side, chuffing and exchanging nuzzles. Vicious had made known her disapproval of one of her own clutch bonding with a human. Nuffink only wanted to be friends with all the dragons, and Pouncer was amused by the boy's attempts to sneak up on her as she loved trying to do to her clutchmates. She had no desire to fly Nuffink around, which was just fine because Mommy and Daddy made it clear that both human and dragon were too young for that anyway.

On a high bluff, far removed from any other person or dragon, Uncle Toothless and Aunt Frost stood, with their hatchlings tumbling around and on top of them. The sire and dam raised a wing and roared farewell, particularly to the temporary surrogate dam.

Nuffink had learned that fixing Frost's mind – at least in the ways that mattered most to her – was some sort of faustian bargain with Dragon King. Pouncer had shared with Nuffink about how Frost was sharing with any dragon she came into contact with about some sort of hidden world the dragons could retreat to.

Knowing that such a place existed, where dragons could choose to live free from the threat and even influence of humans, made Nuffink happy. He had his own secret areas, after all, so why shouldn't dragons have theirs? Even though Grimmel was a bad man who tried to kill Daddy, maybe his idea of making separation possible was a good one.

Behind him, Mrs. Butterfly was growling, heedless of the Terror on her shoulder who was playfully nipping at her ear. "I still can't believe I just let that scoundrel steal my friends away!" she groused.

Daddy sighed. "I trust him to make sure everyone stays out of trouble."

"Tuffnut–" someone coughed.

Daddy grinned. "Well, too much trouble." He turned to Butterfly. "Ya know, as much as nobody wants to admit it, Tord did sorta save everyone up here, so I can't blame those who wanted to join his company for a bit."

"Oh, we don't know that," Butterfly said, waving it off dismissively.

"You really believe we'd have survived that fight without him somehow convincing Firebrand to fly up here, and bring all the scattered dragons together, and the Skrill, and help us develop tactics against an enemy we've never–"

"I will bite you!" Butterfly growled.

Mommy turned and held up a fist in mock-threat, with the hand that wasn't supporting Jorunn in her sling. "Toothless and I will get jealous if anyone else bites my husband. You don't want that. Trust me."

Everyone laughed at that as they silently and unanimously decided to begin the climb up the many ramps to the village.

Without conscious thought, feet still anchored in place, Nuffink reached out and brushed his hand against Surf's tail as it slid past. Said dragon turned and regarded him with a curious chirp.

"Thank you," Nuffink said to the dragon. "For making Mommy happy again. She's a good land-strider. You're a good dragon."

The dragon chuffed and looked like he was about to pick him up and place him on his back when a great WHOOSH and a loud THUMP interrupted.

Everyone turned around to see Striker there, a sight that had at one time filled Nuffink with fear before he confronted said fear. Since then, the dragon seemed to have felt a pull towards the only human – probably the only living creature – on this island who felt only a giddy excitement at the sight of the lighting-flinging dragon. Even Daddy still felt some apprehension about what that dragon could – and never would! – do with his lightning. It was his job, after all, to fret about his people, so who could blame him?

Striker leaned forward and chuffed into Nuffink's neck, causing Pouncer to growl with a little jealousy.

"You're a good dragon too!" Nuffink squealed in delight, draping himself over the dragon's snout. Striker gave a quick lick to his cheek and spun around to shoot up, lightning popping and crashing between his wings just for show.

Nuffink looked at Butterfly and winked at her, and she winked back. He had a dream about riding those dragons, and she had revealed that she did too, so it would surely happen. Science!

Well, she had also said something about bringing Night Furys and Skrills together for some sort of last stand before all Vikings and dragons were wiped from the face – a word she emphasized deeply – of Midgard, and some other boring adult stuff, blah blah blah. He could see that it was inevitable that humans would rule the world, eventually, and if they could simply avoid assuming the worst of others, it would be a good world. Easy!

She then pat him on the head and told him that the future was not something to fret over, and the present was something to be enjoyed with an unrelenting vengeance.

She also said that she would work on softening up Daddy to design a saddle for a Skrill, a thought that always sent a shiver down his spine.

That would be fun!

A/N:
Whoo, done! From the start, I wanted to include a good chunk of the canon from The Hidden World, but I knew it would be ridiculous to try to "fix it" as I had tried with HTTYD 2. THW had some interesting themes, like letting go of friends when their interests take them away from you, but a good plot does not a theme create, and the whole bit about dragons flying off to make themselves and the Vikings more vulnerable to the next inevitable attack didn't make sense at all.

I'd like to thank VigoGrimborne for sticking it out with me as my beta buddy! He's got some interesting and well-written stories that have a lot of grit and realism, so consider showing him some love. And thank you, dear reader, for granting my story the time to read. Comments and PMs are always welcome, be it what you thought was good or bad. I love hearing back from y'all!

Aside from a silly blooper chapter to follow this one sometime, I don't have any plans for future works. It's only getting harder to put in the time to do it. However, if you feel so inclined to write your own story to flesh out some elements I skimmed past in this story, or to create your own shenanigans with my flavor of dragon telepathy or whatnot, PM me; I'd be happy to act as an advisor and beta.