Toothless was looking around for Hiccup the second he was above the mouth of the hole, eager to find him again. How many days had passed down there?
The rushing noise of the waterfalls greeting them, Albino guided him towards where they had left from, landing gently on the outcrop entrance and trotting under the water. Toothless ducked under and tried to be drawn to Hiccup like he usually was, his sensors up to find him. But he wasn't there.
He huffed a pout and Albino laughed at him again. Aren't you supposed to be the Alpha?
They'd discovered she was a few years older than him. Not too great, especially not in dragon years, but currently the greatest age difference between Night Furies in the world.
She shook herself free of the water droplets and urged him to go look for Hiccup. She would follow. Toothless took the lead and they began to wander the tunnels.
Toothless nearly did have a sixth sense to find Hiccup, because it wasn't long before they came across the fire pit he had been using to cook his meals. His scent strengthened and Toothless was soon trotting along confidently, Albino staying by his side. The cave they eventually made their way to was right near the bottom of the gorge, sprayed with mist from the nearby collision of water and rock. They were closer to the mouth of the ocean than to the Hidden World. The ceiling soared upward as Hiccup's soothing voice became audible. Toothless perked up and roared to him.
Moments later, Hiccup's head poked over a wall of thin stalagmites and, thrilled, he yelled, "Toothless!" He vaulted himself over the rocks and ran to Toothless, who pounced on him for a hug and utterly bowled him over.
Moon-guider leapt up gracefully onto the top of the stalagmites and called a hello, to which Albino responded cheerfully as Toothless licked Hiccup's face.
From the ground, Hiccup defended his hair from the attack and countered by rubbing Toothless's face happily. "Hey, bud! Oh, man, is it good to see you!" He hugged the dragon's flat head and was lifted to his feet as the Night Fury stood up on hind legs. He began trotting around Hiccup, being petted all the way, and making noises in a story-telling tone. As he flapped his wings to show how they had been flying, Albino joined in, with a similar vocal tone, and intercut Toothless's excitement with her own retelling. This all made Moon laugh from her perch, and Hiccup smiled along as he watched them.
Albino got close to him in her playfulness and Hiccup reached out to rub her nose. "Did you take care of him down there?" he asked, fake sternly. Her pupils dilating, she pushed her head into his hand and mimicked his tone.
Did you take care of him up here?
Toothless rolled his eyes and wrestled Albino aside for his place as Hiccup's favorite, shoved his head into the Viking's chest, and was rewarded with a hug around the neck. Hiccup smiled at Albino and she returned the favor, retracting her teeth.
"You do it too!" Hiccup exclaimed, just before a wire poked into his side. "Oh—Toothless, your tail." Toothless smacked his lips and sat down so that Hiccup could do some maintenance, tightening the wire and stringing it back into its leather loopholes. He went to examine the prosthetic tail fin—"Aw, bud, is this one still chafing your tail?" He loosened its straps a little to check and wound up rubbing a healing oil he carried in a small vial onto Toothless's real tail to soothe the area. "Yeah. Again." He sighed. "I thought the adjustments would have fixed it. I knew we should have tried the new self-flying prototype out before we came out here. Don't worry, bud, we'll fix it up." He tightened the tail again and made sure it was still set into fly-by-yourself mode. "There. All done."
Albino swung her tail around while all this was going on and examined her own, unbroken, tail fins.
A rattling noise came from the other side of the stalagmite wall and caught both Night Furies' attentions. Moon's pupils thinned and she turned around to look, ear-flaps flattening.
Toothless recognized the noise and immediately growled, showing his teeth and drawing close to Hiccup. Albino crouched behind him while the human extracted himself from his protective dragon. "Hey—woah—Toothless! It's okay!" Hiccup came around in front of him and held out his palms. Seeing his assurance, Toothless stopped growling doubtfully. "It's okay. We've been trying to take care of her. Her collar is gone."
Moon-guider ducked down to offer her claws to help Hiccup up, and lifted him over the stalagmites. He disappeared and Toothless heard him shushing the noisy dragon. Hesitantly, he crept forward and peered through a gap in the lowest stalagmites.
Exactly what he thought. A Deathgripper. Grimmel's leading Deathgripper.
Hiccup was approaching it, his hand out, although he didn't take his eyes off the scorpion-dragon. Darling was on her feet now, having had several days to recover under more caring conditions than she had ever experienced. Just finished with the fish they'd brought her to eat, she lumbered out of the shadows and pushed her head into Hiccup's palm.
"Hey," he said soothingly, and looked back at Toothless. "See, bud? It's okay."
Albino joined Toothless to look at Darling through the hole, and peeked her head over the stalagmites when she couldn't see around him. As she extended her neck, Moon moved aside, and Albino took the invitation to stand up and pounce, catlike, onto the perch to join the other white dragon.
She locked eyes with Darling, and the Deathgripper crouched and snarled, unfurling her wings at the sudden appearance of what appeared and smelled to be another Light Fury. Albino returned the favor, teeth coming out, and Moon batted at her head.
"Woah, woah, woah," Hiccup said, getting in between them again and blocking Darling's view of someone unfamiliar. "She's a friend."
Darling's tusks came back in, but she still glowered at Albino. Hiccup stroked her nose encouragingly and turned back to scold the Night Fury. "Be careful! You startled her!" Albino and Moon lowered themselves more slowly into the section of the cave Darling was residing in and came forward, Moon letting Albino take the lead. Albino sniffed at the Deathgripper, and Darling's nose huffed too. Something was different about this Light Fury, but the human who had taken care of her smelled like Night Furies, too. Darling's conditioning did not kick in. Albino blinked a hello to the yellow-eyed dragon.
Once he was sure they were okay with each other, Hiccup called, "Toothless, you can come up to say hi too. Slowly."
Toothless cautiously raised his head to see his friend managing the introduction of the only other member of his species and one of the dragons who had made it that way. Something didn't sit right, but he trusted Hiccup. He climbed up onto the stalagmites cautiously, his head lowered defensively.
Darling's eyes locked onto him and her pupils shrank to shreds. She stiffened.
Outside, a whistle sounded.
Hiccup, hearing it, frowned.
Years and years of training and abuse by Grimmel were still present even without the drug. Night Furies were targets.
Every Fury's ear frills pricked up as they felt something change in Darling. She fought it, with Hiccup still in her field of view. To her credit, it took several still, tense, seconds before her lifelong conditioning won.
Her tusks shot out of her mouth and one caught Hiccup in the side. With a yell of surprise and pain, he stumbled back and collapsed, clutching his side.
Toothless roared as his friend fell and lunged forward to clash with Darling over Hiccup's prone body. Albino darted forward and pulled Hiccup out of the way as Moon, shrieking, joined Toothless in combat with the Deathgripper.
"Stop! Stop!" Hiccup called to all of them, and over him, Albino mimicked him in a panic.
But Darling batted Moon-guider aside with her powerful forelegs and the Light Fury hit stone with a pained squawk. Toothless shot a bolt of fire at her nearly point-blank and caught the Deathgripper's attention moments before its tail could bury itself in Moon's shoulder. The tail clattered on the stone near her face and Darling's head snapped towards the black Night Fury, roaring furiously.
With a scream that caught Toothless's attention for a moment, Albino darted away, behind Toothless, throwing herself through the waterfall wall, and disappeared. Hurry! Come with me!
He stared after her.
But Hiccup was still here. Moon-guider was still here.
But Toothless stayed and roared back at Darling with all his power of Alpha, so that both Moon-guider's head lowered on instinct, but the crazed Deathgripper did not hear, leaping forward and spraying acidic fire at Toothless, who only barely dodged to the side, trying to lead her away from Hiccup. Darling shot acid at him again and it ate away at the stalagmites before igniting and Toothless returned with a blast of fire that only served to anger his opponent.
"Help him," Hiccup yelled the plea to Moon-guider, who was standing unsteadily, shaking herself.
Darling pounced at Toothless and struck at him with her tail over and over, until he was backed into a corner. She spat acid that just caught the side of his saddle and ate through the just-adjusted wire. Toothless's eyes panicked as he realized, and in that split moment, Darling's tail struck at him.
A flash of white—
Moon-guider crashed to the ground, paralyzed, her head coming to a rest staring at Hiccup.
"No! NO!" He dragged himself over to her and held her head, trying to pick her up.
Darling reared up, her insect-jointed armored claws ready to strike at Toothless, but he spit fire at her chest, throwing her backwards. Still, she was up in an instant and whirling around to find him, utterly ignoring Moon-guider and Hiccup, who was calling her to stop. She threw herself at Toothless the moment she saw him, extending her tusks and catching his head between them, ramming him into the stalagmites and pinning him there. Toothless let out a strangled scream, trying one more time as Alpha to call her off, but her tail wound around the chokehold and caught him in the side.
"NO! TOOTHLESS!" Hiccup screamed as his dragon went limp. His wide eyes found Hiccup as Darling let him slump to the ground, gripping his tail with her hind claws and preparing to take off.
Hiccup stumbled to his feet, still trying to keep pressure on his side, and moved towards Toothless and Darling.
"Darling! Don't—Darling, don't, please don't," he pleaded pitifully to the Deathgripper's yellow eyes, and for a split second he thought she might listen. "You're too weak to carry him—you'll get pulled down by the waterfall!" But as he took another step forward she spat acid between them and raised her wings, pounding them down and lifting off with paralyzed Toothless in her grip.
With a triumphant shriek to her pack, Darling dragged the limp Night Fury along behind her towards the waterfall, and, plunging into it, was forced downwards.
Without enough momentum to get herself and her prey through the waterfall with speed, the water weighed her wings down, and it was all she could do to make it to the other side. Still, she and Toothless both hit the ground heavily and her wings struggled against the current to take flight again.
Still, her dogged resolution forced her muscles to greater and greater ends, and she pulled Toothless's dead weight out of the raging whitewater by his tail. Upside down and paralyzed, his wings splayed and his eyes open, he emerged through the mists as though in slow motion towards the sky where Grimmel waited for him.
Behind him, the one-tusked Bewilderbeast emerged from the Hidden World, led by Albino.
Above them, hovering in their pack and staring down at the two black dragons among the white sea-foam of the Waterfall Gorge, were Grimmel and his Deathgrippers. Seeing Toothless, Grimmel cackled so loudly that it echoed. A piercing, gleeful, evil noise that made the dragons of the Hidden World cringe away as they heard it.
It attracted the Bewilderbeast's attention.
Albino was moving slowly as he rose up, slipping as the tons of water disguised footholds. Its eyes locked onto Toothless, the new Alpha, and it let out a bone-shaking bellow. Darling was still climbing, picking up forward momentum, as the Bewilderbeast's whole body cleared the Hidden World's entrance. Albino let out a shriek and wheeled around, streaking through the rainbows towards the Deathgripper.
Darling, seeing her, let out another hideous roar and powered herself towards the ocean as quickly as she could.
"Yes, yes," Grimmel urged her. "Come to me, Darling."
Behind her, the Bewilderbeast reared up and began thundering up the slope, between the waterfalls, emerging a massive dark shape through the mists. It opened its jaws and sent a cascade of ice shooting out at the retreating dragon-killer.
It served only to force Albino to dodge and weave around the spires of ice.
Darling was picking up speed. Deathgrippers were a match for Night Furies when it came to speed, and although her pack had been hindered by the drug, she had had some time to recover from its effects. Flying came easily again, and while Albino had to dodge ahead of the Bewilderbeast, it had not yet reached Darling. Albino climbed into the sky and swooped around in an attempt to cut the kidnapper off before she could leave the gorge.
Mistaking her for a Light Fury, Grimmel whistled and two of his Deathgrippers peeled off to chase after Albino.
Darling swung Toothless up and caught hold of his chest with her front claws, streamlining the two of them and balancing herself. She roared a challenge at the pale Night Fury and accelerated.
The Bewilderbeast climbed over its own ice and crushed some of it, its tusks nearly reaching the Deathgripper and its eyes locking on. Its mouth opened again, but it stopped just in time as Albino circled into its range, closing her eyes. She curled herself into a ball and, full speed, rammed into Darling's side, taking all three dragons out of the sky.
Darling lost her grip on Toothless and he dropped, but, quick to the draw, she came out of her tailspin in moments and dove to catch him. Albino crashed onto the Bewilderbeast's tusk and scrabbled to dig her claws in before she fell down the outward side of it.
She climbed onto the top of the tusk and threw herself down again as Darling's stinger disappeared under a cloud of spray.
The Bewilderbeast's head recoiled as his weak eyes searched for them under the clouds of water.
Black claws closed around Toothless's chest again, and the Deathgripper's wings strained taut as she fought to curve their acceleration upward. They came shooting out of the mists once again, catching the giant's eyes. Another mountain of ice came launching at them, but Darling dove out of the way just in time to let it go plummeting onto the lowest canyon rocks on the wall of the gorge, sending up a shockwave of ocean water and allowing a river of water to cascade down the slope as a barrier was taken away.
Darling escaped into the open ocean as Albino lifted back up out of the clouds, still chasing.
But she only made it a few lengths away from the Waterfall Gorge before she came up short, crying desperately after the other Night Fury. Albino had never left this place. Something invisible and unbreakable held her there. The Bewilderbeast rose up tall behind her, watching the Night Fury who had taken his flock be carried away. The white-scaled dragon called out again in a panic, but Toothless could not cry back.
She turned back and stared at the emerging Light Furies of the hidden world. They flew up and stared as Grimmel got further and further away. That was all he wanted? Albino screamed at some of them to go after him, but the other Furies had not spent the time with him that she had. Their duty was to guard this place from threat, and the threat had already retreated. Frustrated and desperate, Albino dove back down to the cave where it had all gone wrong, crashing through the water to find Hiccup weakening, only standing by clinging to the stalagmites.
"Where…where is he?" he asked, shell-shocked. "Albino? Where's Toothless?"
—
Toothless was again hanging under Darling by his tail, wings unfurled but unmoving. He had watched the Waterfall Gorge recede over the horizon as Grimmel's flock of Deathgrippers carried him back towards Berk, which he had tried to stay away from for weeks now.
But Grimmel's suspicious eyes searched Darling as she struggled in the sky to display their paralyzed prey as though wanting praise. He had not trained her to want praise. His eyes landed on her neck. Her collar was gone. But she had come back, nonetheless, responded to his call, and had even been successful in hunting the Night Fury on her own. He met her wide, yellow-orange eyes and smoothed his face, concealing his displeasure. Something had even changed in her expression, if that were possible.
Something that he didn't like. Darling lowered herself to Grimmel's level as they hovered mid-air. Her yellow-orange eyes were disturbingly present and alert, the pupils not as thin as he preferred.
He valued his dragons for their obedience, not their independence.
"Where is its rider?" Grimmel mused out loud. "Hiccup, the Chief. Did you kill him, you wicked thing?" She clicked at him almost in response, and his eyes narrowed. They were expected to respond to his commands, not his words. They were not his equals. They were not welcome in a conversation with him. How much had she been changed? A flicker of doubt as he thought about Hiccup. How clever was the boy? Had he managed to turn his own dragon against him?
A quick and then short whistle, and two of the other dragons inched forward to take hold of Toothless's body, relieving Darling of the responsibility.
"Well, now," Grimmel talked down to both the Night Fury and his own dragon. "What will we do with you."
How long would this freed dragon-killer be obedient?
Through his teeth, he let out another piercing command to his other dragons.
The last two Deathgrippers launched themselves with a scream at Darling and her pupils sharpened too late. The first's tail buried itself in her shoulder and she let out a choked shriek before her wings shut down and she dropped. Grimmel whistled again and the two Deathgrippers dove to catch her.
"Don't worry, Darling. We merely need to get you back into your collar."
The Deathgrippers' oddly-jointed front legs closed around her chest and suddenly two of her pack were latched onto her, carrying her upward again, as she could only stare ahead of her at the horizon. As they flew him in front of her, her eyes met Toothless's.
Grimmel the Grisly whistled again as the freshly-paralyzed Darling rejoined the pack, and they began flying back towards the Night Furies' graveyard. Berk's Chief was dead, or as good as, and the Alpha was soon to be, and his payment from the Warlords would follow when the dragon flock became theirs. Once Darling was re-drugged, they were awaited on Berk.