It started as a scream.
A feeble, very feeble scream that barely managed to make one of his hind paws to twitch in annoyance, his mind unconsciously telling the noise not to bother him.
The invisible tendrils of sleep tightened their hold as if anticipating another impotent act of the troublemaker. Toothless went again into his dreamless sleep.
Another appeared. This time it was accompanied by reinforcements in the form of not-so-distant roars.
His unconscious mind started to arouse. The paralysing tendrils of unconsciousness started to get weakened.
The two black onyx ear plates which had previously been flat to the top of his head lifted unconsciously to recognise the miscreant who attempted to disrupt his peaceful slumber.
Another scream. Then another followed by a roar of agony. And then another, getting louder each time.
A bone-rattling roar caused his mind to wake up without any prior notice.
His head snapped up with so much force that a crack resonated from his neck. It was a miracle that his neck hadn't been broken already.
In that particular instant, Toothless genuinely regretted his actions, for the first time in his life.
Black dots started to develop in his vision, accumulating much of his eyesight. And dizziness decided to pay him a lovely visit for his silly actions.
He felt as if someone took his head and twirled it around in every possible direction before putting it back inside.
He took some deep breaths and rubbed his forehead with the palm of his left forepaw to quell his throbbing veins that felt to be popping out soon.
Shouldn't have woken up so quickly. He admonished himself, grumbling under his breath about his idiocracy. In his confused state, he missed out the fact that his mother didn't scold him at all.
He was still under the last tendrils of sleep which vehemently fought with him like a cornered creature before it's execution. He blinked a few times to remove the sleep from his toxic-green peridot eyes.
It took a moment, and a large, wide yawn to fully break from the spell. Luckily the black figments removed themselves from his vision. The dizziness decided it overstayed its welcome and purposefully withdrew from the youthful head of the Night Fury hatchling.
Finally after achieving a moment of clarity, Toothless craned his neck to see if what he heard was real or it was merely a figment of his dream.
His ears perked up and his eyes became slits, his kind's natural reaction to danger, in panic when the Nest began making distress signals. If he would've given more attention he would've noticed the lack of heavy breathing of his parents sooner.
Toothless felt his heart beating rapidly when he realised that he was alone in the cave; he couldn't sense the presence of either of his parents behind him.
He cranked his neck, his body still stuck in the posture he adopted during his sleep, towards the last place he saw his parents, only to find the place empty.
A rapid pulse of anxiousness returned with full force. He didn't know where they went or why for the fact.
He looked around his cave, his head darting from left to right vigorously, to find his parents or even a hint of their whereabouts.
Other than the disappearance of his parents the cave looked normal enough. It only was a bit darker than usual.
His nose scrunched up in confusion. How much time had passed? He nonchalantly asked himself, his voice carrying a tint of surprise. To him, it only seemed to be a couple of hours at most, but the absence of light only told him it was more than that. Since Death Strikers are nocturnal creatures, they would see in the night same if they were watching a grey overcast day, only without any colours. Sometimes it generated a slight irritation, according to him.
He unconsciously craned his neck to the cave entrance to see if it was night, just to satisfy his peace of mind.
Only when his point of the focus fell on the entrance of the cave, he saw the familiar silhouettes of his parents, standing side by side with each other.
After seeing them, he visibly relaxed, his feeling of security and safeness returning.
He was about to hop on his paws and run to them when a peculiar sight caught his attention.
Toothless saw his body neatly wrapped around like a circle with a tail nearly touching his snout. His wings had covered the rock-like structured safely tucked in his belly. His slit eyes momentarily widened their obsidian pupils when he remembered them to be the eggs of his future nestmates.
Judging from the stiffness of his body and the slight ache in his muscles, he reached his conclusion that he had slept through in that position only.
Toothless gently folded his wings and watched over the eggs, his eyes glistening with such care that a stranger would've mistaken him as the mother of the eggs, if not for his small size and his male stature.
The sight of the eggs immediately calmed down any remaining anxiety, and if the loud sounds comings from outside the came weren't there, he would've completely forgotten about them.
Confused about the situation, he slowly and delicately uncurled himself from around the eggs. He stood up on his numb paws and stretched his body like a feline, making pop sounds from his spine. His wings stretched out to the fullest and his tail arched along with his back, shooing away the remaining kinks his body contained.
Satisfied with his stretching exercise, he padded off on his paws to the cave entrance.
Their bodies were tensed, even their tails which normally swished around were lying flat. The atmosphere around them seemed to be gloomy and hinting a bit of danger.
Toothless slowed down his pace and approached them with caution.
"Mother? Father?" He called out to them. "What is happening?" He questioned with worry clearly dripping from his low voice.
No answer.
They seemed to ignore his presence or perhaps not aware of it.
Now he really got extra concerned. His youthful mind ran through a series of scenarios that scared him more, ranging from his parents being paralysed, or being deaf, to the situation being a mere dream.
His claw moved on its own and pinched his nose. It hurt!
No, it was not a dream.
He decided to announce his presence once more, in case his voice had been too low for their hearing.
Before he could open his maw, his sight fell on the dark sky. His best guess would be it was a few hours before dawn.
It didn't take much time to deduce that he had slept throughout the day. I guess all that sleepless nights finally caught up with me. He mused internally.
His train of thoughts was unceremoniously interrupted when his mother moved in front of him and shielded him from a sight that was not meant for his innocent mind.
"The Nest is under attack." his father growled to him. Or at least he assumed it was meant for him.
Amethyst's eyes were reduced to mere slits that spoke of pure anger and disbelief. His sensory plates were all lowered to his face practically glueing themselves to the rough scales. He never was able to properly hid his emotions, his face betraying him.
It was clearly evident that he was trying to contain his reactions to prevent startling his son.
Though solely his attention was stationed on the forest below him.
His mother was occasionally glancing at her son and the eggs that were lying on the far end of the cave.
Toothless cautiously stepped out of the entrance and landed on the ledge. From the edge, he looked down on the scene and saw that a decent amount of dragons were fighting below. The forest was on fire, illuminating the black sky. From this distance, it was impossible to detect which dragon was on which side.
Toothless wad perplexed and shocked, to say the least. Although he knew about the scuffles his nest faced in the past, he hadn't seen any fight of this calibre.
"But no had ever attacked us!" He shouted in scepticism. "Who would attack us? We haven't even threatened anyone for the last couple of years!"
Toothless was young, there was no doubt. But his parents took great care in shaping his mind about the outside world. He knew about the hive politics and history and never before had he heard about any conflict in their history.
Their nest was the most peaceful of all dragon nests! They never lived under an Alpha or a Queen, but under the rule of selected elders and higher classed dragons, such as his parents. The last battle our nest faced was when No-scales took over their last nesting grounds. And that was when he was barely three winters old.
"I cannot answer that now," Amethyst replied to his son's question almost absentmindedly. He was busy assessing the affairs downhill.
In what was presumably, for Toothless, a desperate tone, he added, " My mate, stay inside the cave with our son and watch over the eggs. I will try to assist them and see what is really going on!"
His father nuzzled him and gave his mother a tender lick on her snout.
As he was about to go out his mate cut held his tail in a surprisingly tight hold.
"I should also go with you too, Amethyst." She suggested, already on her paws just waiting for his approval.
"Scarlet... "
"We are both of hight class, dear." She spoke softly, cutting off whatever lame excuse her mate was going to spat out. "Whoever dares to attack us must fave us both. Our elders are not strong enough to fight for the nest, and you cannot possibly take this on yourself."
Toothless could actually feel the determination radiating from her in waves. Her teal coloured eyes seemed to be burning off in flames of fury. And that was, without any ounce of doubt, going to be painful and traumatising for the victims of her wrath.
Both the males gulped a mouthful of saliva, a bulge forming on the throat. They both knew that the female night fury was a force not to be reckoned with.
A glance at his father's face told him that he did not like the idea, not even a bit. It couldn't have been more clear on his face even if the Skies designed it themselves.
Despite scared of his dominative mate, Amathyst tried to counter with a weak reason, his male stubbornness not willing to submit at all.
"You are still weak, dear. It's barely a sun cycle ago that you laid eggs. Besides, who will watch over our future little ones?"
Scarlet knew from her feminine intuition that it was coming even before her mate actually opened his maw.
Even before she could retort, a certain someone solved her problem.
"I will!" Toothless butt in, too excited. His short black tail was swaying hectically and he had a giddy feeling in his chest, like that of a hatchling about to their first flying lesson.
But that feeling was crushed when he felt the intense gaze of both of his parents on his head.
"I...I m-mean," Toothless stammered, shrinking under their gaze and losing a more than half of his excitement due to nervousness. " I mean, I will take care of them. Go on, they're safe with me!" He finished his sentence in haste before his consciousness inexplicably changes his mind.
He glanced up to his parents with wide, uncomfortably wide eyes, wide enough that most of the toxic green colour of his eyes vanished.
both looked hesitant. "Very well," his father broke the silence with a defeated tone, his male pride crushed to a pulp. "but it does not calm me that you would be up so soon in a fight, just after laying eggs." His ears were lowered and his head lost an inch or two of height.
A warm smile dotted Scarlet's snout. She nuzzled her mate's cheeks with her own to cheer him up.
She stretched her body like a feline, much like Toothless did and shook her lithe feminine frame to loosen any remaining kinks in her body.
"I will be fine, my love." She reassured her mate, setting his worry plastered face. "After all, you were the one to say I would never be weak, even if I was sick or dying at the hands of Hell herself."
She nipped his left ear playfully and he tackled her down, pinning her between his paws. For a moment they forgot about the outside world, busy in their affectionate moment.
Toothless rolled his eyes, both internally and externally. He walked away to face the opposite direction with a groan. He might know how eggs were made, but he had no such intention of seeing or hearing any of the processes, let alone it being done by his own parents!
It was gross. Plain vomit-inducing gross.
He offered a silent prayer to the Skies, wishing with his heart that his parents might develop some decency they sorely lacked.
He tried to block out the mental picture that decided to randomly pop into his head. Seems that his imagination was also against him. He was sure that after this session he would be traumatised. If he wasn't already.
When he heard his parent's voices, indicating the end of the gruesome scene, he turned on his paws and quickly marched on add a bit more distance between them. At last, the impulsive sounds died down a bit.
Still, he was able to hear his parents' conversation.
"You could never be weak even then, my love." His father said that, with a voice full of love and admiration towards his mother.
Although he wasn't a fan of this particular display of affection, the way his father cared for his mother always managed to put a smile on his muzzle.
"Stay with me. Do not go too far, okay? And please do not overstrain yourself." Amethyst pleaded to her in a stern voice. "Strong as you are, I won't take my chances of you fighting with Hell. Who will take care of this old butt, huh?" The musky male voice softened at the end.
Toothless huffed in annoyance and faked disgust when Amethyst walked back to him. " Don't be disturbed by our affectionate moments, son."
He huffed again.
Without warning, Amethyst put his head on top of his son's, while emanating a slight purr which vibrated throughout his whole body, a technique frequently used by parents to calm their hatchlings.
Toothless had to drop his facade because the vibrations tickled his body, drawing a chuckle from his maw.
"You will understand someday when you will find your own mate."
"Like I am in a hurry," Toothless muttered under his breath.
"Take care of eggs, don't let anyone in, no peeking outside. And?" His father asked him the last answer.
"And don't leave the cave." Toothless groaned. "Must you remind me so often?"
"It comforts us to check, dear." His mother chimed in not before giving him a brief nuzzle on his scaly cheek.
Toothless didn't complain though. As much as his boasting of being not a hatchling anymore, he couldn't ignore the love and care of his parents. To him they were the Guardian Angels of his life; His father protecting him from the harmful skies, and his mother shielding him from the destructive burn of Hell's fire.
"Please be safe guys," He murmured while burying his snout into the warm comfort radiating dark scales of his mother.
"We will be back soon," Scarlet assured her son before pulling away and licking his forehead.
Toothless yelped and scootered away. He didn't know if it was his imagination or the saliva left on the top of his head was more than it should have been for a small lick.
Speaking of lick, "Mother!" he screeched in indignation, "I'm not a hatchling anymore! And it's gross!" He whined in pitiful exclamation.
His reaction brought a chuckle out of her.
"You will always be our hatchling, Tooth." She exclaimed with a gentle and kind touch of a mother, "Always our First Hatch." The words purred out of her chest.
In response, they received a half-hearted glare pointing in his direction.
Both of his parents chuckled. They unfolded their wings from their back and with quick powerful strokes, they went into the air.
Leaving him alone with the eggs.
