Albino had never seen the Northern Lights before.
She let out a cry of surprise as the sky lit up with green and pink fire while she flew, flashes of untouchable orange joining in with the streams like ribbons. She dove lower at first, scared that it was something dangerous. And then she looked at it—really looked at it, and her body took her higher again, nearer to it. Her scales and wings reflected the colors, dancing along with them like she was made for it. Bright-eyed, she opened her mouth and cooed in awe. Suddenly the world, alone, didn't feel as empty. It warmed the feeling of loneliness and gave her someone to fly with.
She soared up, trying to touch the lights, but they were ever out of reach. Looking below her, the whole world was bathed in green. It was impossibly beautiful. She shook herself mid-flight and flapped faster. Once she found the other Night Fury, she would berate him for not telling her this was out here.
She had not lost his scent, although it was mixed with that of several Deathgrippers now, and a human that seemed sicker, somehow, than Toothless's human. She bared her teeth as a strong whiff of this man stung her nose.
She was coming for them.
—
Her two siblings had both had dark scales, like Toothless, and so they had wound up going off into the world and protecting nests. She, once she had been deposited in the Hidden World, had stayed there with the Light Furies for her whole life, since she looked more like them anyway. She couldn't disappear in the night the way her family could, couldn't become invisible like the Light Furies, and so came to the conclusion that she would have been useless anywhere but the Hidden World.
They used to visit her every once in a while—her siblings and her parents. She had sensed them coming and was waiting in the air when they appeared over the horizon. They used to spend some time with her, paying their respects to the golden rocks in the Hidden World, before going back off.
She remembered when her brother had brought back his mate to show her, an especially glossy, dark Night Fury with a scarred nose. She had a particularly poor sense of smell but sharp eyes and a possessive attitude. Albino and this female had hated each other, couldn't get along for the life of them, and the reunion had been gracefully cut short as her brother had guided his mate away early. After that, when he visited, he came alone.
Once she realized that she hadn't seen her sister in several solstices, she'd inquired about her when her parents had come to visit. They didn't know, either, and when they flew away, they had intended to go look for her.
Something had been wrong, and they hadn't told her what it was.
The next was the mate of her brother, looking for him, unable to catch onto his scent to track him. Upon finding that he wasn't there, she flew off without a second glance. She was never seen again.
Only four years ago, she had seen her parents. The older, bigger, rough-edged Night Furies had begun traveling everywhere together once their species started disappearing one by one. They stopped pretending everything was fine around their last remaining daughter, not that their protections had been working before. She was old enough to have heard the groans and mumbles brought back by dragons that had arrived more recently. Night Furies in their nests were going missing, leaving them unguarded on raids, without backup that they had been accustomed to for generations. There were dragon-killers being trained by a human. The Queen near Berk—although the dragons of the Hidden World didn't know it by that name—had been killed. A Night Fury's body had struck down a Monstrous Nightmare when it touched the dead dragon.
And then came the solstice when her parents hadn't come back.
They had never been the only Night Furies to come visit the Hidden World, but Albino hadn't paid much attention to them; their appearances were irregular. But when her parents disappeared…
The scar on her shoulder was from after they failed to come back.
She had waited for them, hovering above the waterfalls like she had every year, scanning the horizon for their figures. And the sun had set. And the sun had risen. And they were still not there. Night Furies' wings were made for easy flying, but she had waited there in the sky until they ached from the exertion. And when she'd come down into the Hidden World, all she wanted was something to eat, and had unfortunately chosen the same fish as a bright-colored and quick-tempered Rumblehorn, and in the ensuing dispute she had snapped one of his horns and she gained her shoulder scar.
Not long after, the fight had seemed to disappear. She spent all her time with the Light Furies, rarely dipping down into the Hidden World. She didn't go to play with the hatchlings. She watched new dragons arrive without greeting them. She tried not to look at her own reflection, tried to mimic the Light Furies as best she could. The world seemed made of white clouds, white ocean spray, white dragons, and blue sky, blue ocean, blue eyes, gray rocks, gray fish. Four years.
And then she'd seen Toothless.