The Light Fury kept looking back at Toothless and Hiccup as if she was scared they'd disappear. When she wasn't, she was calling back to them, letting the sound trickle back to Toothless's ears, and he would call back up to reassure her.

Hiccup listened to them do this with bittersweetness in his heart. This dragon had probably watched the Night Furies disappear. She might have even seen them be killed, if she was able to be invisible. He imagined what it might have been like to watch Grimmel kill them, one after the other, invisible.

How had he done it? It made Hiccup's blood curl to even begin to think about killing a dragon. Not that it hadn't always, but…

He wished his mother was here. She would know how old the Light Fury was. Was she Toothless's age? Older? Did she know other Night Furies?

She looked back at them again and shook herself. A thought occurred to Hiccup: maybe there were some other Night Furies still alive. Maybe this dragon knew where they were, maybe she was taking them to wherever the last Night Furies were.

"Has she told you where we're going, bud?" he asked Toothless, who shook his head and sped up to match the Light Fury's speed. He shifted in the saddle. "And, uh, do you think we can stop for a bathroom break sometime?"

As soon as he said it, the Light Fury flapped up, spun to call to them, and then dove straight down beneath the pink sunset clouds, disappearing. Toothless crooned in surprise and dove after her.

Something huge rushed out at them through the clouds and Toothless dodged to the side as the branches of a massive tree emerged to catch them. Hiccup cried out in surprise, only just barely managing to help his friend dodge the immense tree. They lost the Light Fury immediately, weaving down around the thing's branches until the cloud cover came to an end and they caught sight of a jungle of huge trees, punctuated by the cloud-piercing giants that they'd nearly hit. Toothless pulled out of his dive and circled away from it, emerging on its other side and wheeling around to look around for the Light Fury.

He called out to her and his voice echoed across the jungle. An answer came from above them, and Hiccup craned his neck upwards.

She appeared above them, dancing through the air upside down playfully, to circle all the way below them and keep leading them down. She laughed at Toothless's awed face and he shook himself before following.

She led them further down, coasting on air currents until she saw the lagoon cove she had apparently been looking for, and then they descended until they could land on the pink sand. She landed lighter and more gracefully than Toothless and her eyes smiled as his wings and feet kicked up sand. Hiccup threw himself off and yelled, "Be right back!" before running off towards the jungle.

Toothless, left along with the other Fury, trailed after him anxiously. Wait don't leave; what am I supposed to say to her?! When Hiccup disappeared, his ears flattened shyly and he looked back at her, sheepish.

A moment passed, and the two dragons just stared at each other. The orange and pink sunset light glistened off the Light Fury's hide. She always seemed to glow, but especially now. Toothless checked himself. He was staring.

Finally, she lowed curiously. What?

What?

Why do you look like that?

Look like what? I don't look like anything. I'm just standing here.

You're just standing there looking terrified. The Light Fury laughed at him and twirled around, kicking up sand in a circle. Aren't you the Alpha? She puffed herself up, making herself look big and important and definitely making fun of him.

Toothless grumbled, bristling, giving her a side-glance and rolling his eyes. She gave up and approached, brushing against his side and trilling to calm him down.

He snapped his retractable teeth at her without any mean-ness behind it and she stepped away. He tilted his head. Where are you taking us?

She retreated from him and became more serious, tossing her head to the South. Nowhere good.

Where?

If I tell you, you won't come. But you should see it. The Light Fury looked at him with deeply pained eyes, but shook it away, trying to brighten up for his sake. And then somewhere better.

Somewhere better?

Yes! She whirled and pounced on a fallen log surrounded by smooth coastal stones, launching herself into the air and firing a blast at the sand, kicking up a sculpture of displaced and now super-fired sand. It looked as though it was made from bubbles, and stood as tall as Hiccup.

Toothless jumped in shock and then hummed to congratulate her. Wait—wait! He could make art, too. He raced to the tree-line and snapped a branch away from the nearest jungle tree. She watched as he smoothed a circle of sand with his tail and began to scratch a design in it. She circled as he drew, her head tilting in fascination.

Did your human teach you this?

Teeth clenched around the branch, Toothless glanced at her to nod.

Finally, he stepped back, revealing a drawing of her face. She cooed. Wow!

It's you!

I see that!

Hiccup reappeared at the tree-line and paused before he reemerged. It took him a second to see what the two dragons were dancing about, and he shrugged with friendly exasperation, "Oh, now he can draw."

The Light Fury was teaching Toothless something she thought he should know.

They circled each other in a spiral, wings held high. Toothless's steps were wrong, though, and the Light Fury wasted no time in stopping to correct him. She showed him how to prance the right way, where to put his feet and how. He was landing too heavily on the sand for her taste; she wanted him to have lighter steps. Toothless groaned a complaint at her and stomped his feet, burying his claws in the sand stubbornly.

She whined, batted him with her wing, and swiped at his leg. Toothless turned his head away.

Hiccup laughed to himself and sat down to watch.

The Light Fury wrinkled her nose and huffed, turning her back on him to fly a little way down the beach.

Toothless glanced at her and then away. Glanced at her again. Turned his head even further away, pretending to look at something else. The Light Fury, at first holding her head high, thumped her chin down definitively on the sand, curled herself into a ball, and closed her eyes with finality.

Hiccup's Night Fury friend glanced over at her and finally gave in. He vocalized an apology, trailing towards her one step and then two. She didn't respond, but her eyes flicked open. She waited for him to come to her, and when he did he nudged her with his nose.

Get up! I'm sorry. Teach me again.

She sprang up as gracefully as she could and looked at him with the face of someone utterly pleased to be indulged. She showed him again the steps of the Furies' dance and he copied her for a moment before getting shy and ducking his head.

Don't make me do it alone.

Okay. So they danced it together, her eyes searching him for a misstep and seeming to find one every time.

—

It went on for some time, in this lonely, peaceful beach under the vast sky. In circles the two Furies went, over and over again, their noses nearly meeting every time it ended. They looked like they were born to dance together.

The sun had fully set and the both of them were out of breath by the time they stopped. They spun in their last circle, prancing left-foot-up-right-foot-up, sweep-tail-and-stand-up, shake-your-neck-and-meet-in-the-middle, and their faces were inches apart. The Light Fury looked into Toothless's determined eyes and finally nodded proudly. That'll do. He chattered and shook himself in delight. Having spotted Hiccup watching a while ago, Toothless looked to him in triumph as the exhausted Light Fury rolled on her back to take a well-earned break.

Hiccup clapped and cheered, "Woo!"

Toothless pounced from the fallen log and did a barrel roll of celebration before he landed again, spinning in an excited and decidedly less-graceful dance.

"We should rest for a while, bud," Hiccup called. "It's been a long day." And it really had been. They'd been awake and flying (or dancing) for nearly an entire twenty-four hours now. Toothless agreed, and came up to where Hiccup lay in the trees' shade to curl up with him. He looked back to where the Light Fury lay on the sand and found her already asleep in the moonlight. He crooned fondly and lay his head down, feeling his best friend lean against him for the night. Against all odds, it had actually been a good day.

—

Hiccup dreamed about his father.

He sat as a child on Stoick's knee, soft-eyed, at sunset. Motherless, friendless, and without purpose yet. They watched from afar as the Twins' mother and Spitelout dragged a netted dragon towards the training ring. There had been a time when he was a boy that the Twins' mother had been visiting for a few years, since her husband was absent and Stoick's wife had been taken. They had bonded for a while, until Stoick had decided there was more comfort to be found in dragon-fighting and his duties as chief. So Hiccup's surrogate mother had become Gobber instead.

"What's that one, Dad?" he heard his dream-self ask.

"That is a Hideous Zippleback," Stoick said, leaning down to him. "One of the great dragon army who attacked last night."

"Woah."

"Yep," his father continued in his thick accent. "All the way from the dragons' nest, way out on the sea, shrouded by a veil of fogs. A hidden world of beasts like that, and ones even more horrible. There lives the masses of dragons who fly to our home, the land of our parents and grandparents. Sailors tell tales of the land beyond the seas, a world of waterfalls shrouded by mists and guarded by dragons, and it's just...over...there." He pointed. That was the direction in which all ships headed when they searched for the Nest. "The home of the dragons, Hiccup. We haven't found it yet, but I believe it's your destiny to find it, someday. So that humans and dragons will no more be enemies."