Uneven streams of tears cascaded down his already wet cheeks, hitting the ground with a thud that could have easily come from a Thunderer's.

The muddled shaking body of Toothless remained in its slopped down position on the ground, his eyes staring into the oblivion.

Gone.

They were dead.

Those words echoed through his brain, distorting itself with each iteration.

They are dead. They are dead. They are dead...

Dead.

The term that was as foreign to him as was the concept of Death Strikers missing their target.

A term he got familiarised with at that night.

He had heard about the death of his kin many times in his existence. Sometimes it was some elders he didn't know. Sometimes it was a hive member dying due to some unknown disease. But those incidents were fairly rare in occurrence because dragons have a long lifespan and have astonishing regenerative capabilities.

In short, death was simply an abstract topic his immature mind had no care or concern about.

Until today.

He didn't care about it until today. Until the loss of both of his parents.

Even though he was having a mental dilemma inside his head in believing that what happened was real, not a simple fear-induced hallucination, there was no mistaking it.

Both of his parents were dead. Gone from his life for eternity. Never to be seen or heard again.

No longer his father would be there to protect him from the harmful Skies.

No longer would his mother shield him from Hell's fire anymore.

No longer he could sleep and snuggle with them, receive their loving nuzzles, or witness his parents affectionate moments even though he would unquestionably resent it.

No longer will he see their smiled adorned faces.

All these thoughts roamed through the mind of our favourite Death Striker when he was reduced to weeping and trembling black heap of scales.

The reality of the situation hit him hard.

Toothless could not keep the tears that swelled his eyes. No matter how much he tried they flowed like gigantic streams from his peridot orbs. At that moment he had no shame for crying like a newly hatched dragon wanting the comfort and care of its parents. He didn't care about it anymore.

He could've cared less about the world if not for the eggs.

He clenched the part of his chest with his foreleg, directly where his heart pounded with agony. The anguish that stabbed his heart with its acidic claws was never before endured in his life, even when he had a nightmare about the eggs not hatching.

His whole body shook with powerful heart retching sobs that went unnoticed by all. All but six cataracted eyes.

"Anyone else?!" The terrific roar voiced out its victory, but not before glancing at the stricken with grief ebony fledgeling.

Toothless felt the evil gaze on his black scales. The sordid dirty gaze sent a terrifying bolt of electricity through his entire backbone. Not the type of sensation you would feel if someone was watching you. No, it was as if he had taken a peek in Hell itself.

He jumped on all his paws in an instant, his frame still trembling from the sobs. His tail stiffened and curled itself in between his hind legs as if hiding itself from the owner of that gaze.

His eyes, the veins of which had been swollen and red, met the three of the six eyes of the Monster. The murderer that killed not only his parents but the parents of a lot of now-orphaned fledgelings of his hive. A slight resentment grew inside his youthful soul for the destroyer of his Nest.

The hatred and the disgust were again suppressed with unbridled dread when he sensed the pleased emotion on the Beast's face, which was scanning over the raged with fire island.

Fear shot through his split heart, burning it like Changeling acid.

Without much thought, he threw himself inside the dark cave, the once warming walls now a cold reminder of what he had lost today.

He immediately hurled himself over the eggs, hunching just above them, hiding them under his wings and out of sight of that thing.

He was terrified of losing the last of his surviving family. And he would be damned if he let the death of his parents in vain.

No sooner had he rested his watchful eyes on the entrance than a Flame Skin and a SpikeTail barged in through it.

Right inside his cave.

For a moment, a very minute and infinitesimal small moment, a thought presented itself. That perhaps they would help him, maybe even protect him. After all, it was a well-known rule for dragons not to harm hatchlings, even if they belonged to their enemy.

But a single short glance on their postures extinguished that flickering hope.

Their eyes were slightly glazed over, their pupils narrowed, which certainly wasn't supposed to be seen on someone ought to help you.

And damn the Skies, their frames were stiff and tense, and that in turn made him tense out in nervousness and anticipation.

The Flame Skin was an azure blue dragoness with a petite yet stocky figure. The feminine nature was accentuated with curves and toned muscles, showing the dragoness was an experienced warrior.

The large head was connected to the body by a thin sinuous neck, from the bottom of which, two rows of long spikes appeared that blanketed the whole back. The tail was coated with a single row of thin smaller spines that concluded with a sail-like tail fin at the tip of the tail.

The hindlegs had long menacing claws. The underbelly of the intruder was a tad bit darker shade than the biscaled body.

Flame Skins had only four limbs, excluding the tail. Their forelegs were transformed into wings like appendages. The paws were elongated with finger-like projections protruding from the backside which supported the delicate wing membrane.

The bluish hue of the wings slowly transitioned into a light reddish shade from the edges to the middle of the membrane. One of the things that caught his eye was the broken horn on top of her head. Even with that physique, she was malnourished, suspecting from the jutting out ribs and the dulled scales.

Another of the things that he noticed was the scars, some of them gruesome, that littered her whole body from snout to tail. The most prominent one being a nasty looking slash on her face. Three diagonal parallel gashes ran across her left amber-orange eye. They were never healed properly and judging from the wound it was received at an early age since that was the phase when dragonic regeneration and healing was underdeveloped and thus could not heal severe hurt marks.

Her companion had similar yet a little moderated aspect. The drake had dull emerald green scales that had seen better days, remarking that many of them were chipped or missing from the hide. The underbelly was milky light blue. His crown of horns adorning the back of his skull was missing a few of the spikes.

The spikes on his tail were raised in an aggressive demeanour.

A minute detail escaped under his fearful stare. He didn't notice their forlorn expressions. If he had he would've seen the resigned turmoil hidden underneath both pairs of eyes, describing their dislike in whatever they were doing.

His whole body froze on the spot, his tail stood on end, straight as a pole.

It was quite obvious that they had come to take away his brothers and sisters. Or worse to kill him just like his parents.

Neither of the options was likeable. While he did not know what happened to the losers of a challenge, he had an intuition that it wasn't anything good.

Either he would end up dead or maimed or...eaten alive! He had to suppress the shudder that almost embrace his lithe body.

Aggressors should not show any type of weakness in front of heir opponents.

He uncurled himself from the eggs and stood in the offensive front he had seen others stand in friendly battles. He hoped he was doing it correctly.

Adult or not, he didn't care as long as they were a threat to his family.

He was prepared to defend his brothers and sisters, even at the cost of his own life. For a moment everything vanished into oblivion; the eggs, his parents' death, the gruesome bloody scene outside, the Monster all became unimportant for him. His only focus was in the two approaching adult dragons that were steadily walking towards him.

The two eggnapers stopped in their tracks when they saw the pitiful stance of the shaking fledging in front of them. If it was a different, more cheerful situation they would have raised their non-existent eyebrows in mild amusement of the bravery of the child.

After all, it was rare to see someone of his age to stand against two battle-hardened warriors.

At the same time, it made them sad. Another child was about to lose his future.

Figuring it was best to finish up what they started, they cautiously went a step towards the dark scaled child. They needed to make sure to capture him without the need to but him, much.

What they didn't expect was two bright orbs of white-hot plasma hit both of them on their snouts and exploding on contact, the unexpected attack taking them off guard.

Toothless acted fast. That attack of his surprised him too. It was purely out of fright-filled instinct that he rapid fired two blasts concurrently without thinking on his own.

He made quick work of shaking his gaping surprise and attacked the two thralls of IT when they were still in a daze. He needed to take advantage even the tenth of a heartbeat if he wanted to come out of this skirmish alive and without any missing appendages. Perhaps he could take them on his own if he acted quick. They hadn't expected him to have such a hot and powerful fire at his age.

This was partially true. While the two dragons had underestimated the Death Striker fledgelings capabilities, they were not expecting the attack. All the other fledgelings they retrieved before cowered in fear, many fainted on the spot or relieved themselves out of fright, but none of them had openly tried to attack them.

And they didn't know that Death Striker fledgelings at the age of ten cycles, had powerful fires.

The explosion threw them both back a couple of paw steps, making them stumble to keep their balance while also attempting to shake off the daze the concussive force created.

Taking advantage of their daze, he quickly zipped towards them with an unprecedented level of speed and agility.

Within a heartbeat after the explosion, he was on top of the Spine Tail's back.

He curled his claws and slashed them over the hard scales repeatedly for a dozen times, earning a surprised yelp from his victim, before targeting the wings. His unsheathed razor-sharp teeth punctured through the delicate membrane but failed to shred them as intended. Even then he drew a considerable amount of blood from the thin skin.

The emerald drake flayed in every possible direction to throw the brat off of his back, but Toothless had firmly planted his claws in the scaled hide to prevent his dislocation.

Toothless's attempts were terminated when a tail came swinging from his plank. He would've been hit by it had he not jumped off the Spike Tail.

The drakaina had recovered from the shot when Toothless was occupied in attacking her partner.

Unknown to him, the Flame Skin was an experienced fighter. Granted she was perplexed from the strength displayed from the little fledgeling, she didn't allow it to affect her fighting prowess.

She had already estimated that the actions of his foe. The child was merely operating on his raw instincts, therefore it was uncoordinated. And based on his slightly trembling body he was also afraid. It didn't take a heartbeat for her to plan her next possible actions.

Toothless jumped back to avoid the thick viscous fire breath of the orange drakaina...only to get hit, hard, in his rump.

The sight would've been comical in any other situation. His rump overcame the gravity and took off into the direction of the drakaina, pushing his torso as well. He yelped as plummeted through the air, right into the wall ahead of him, the female having shifted to her left to avoid getting slapped in her face.

A crack resonated from the stone structure which fractured by the force of a pummeling fledgeling.

His dazed body hit the floor not long after.

Toothless groaned quietly.

His back hurt from that impact. He was afraid that it was broken.

He didn't get the chance to get up on his paws since a heavy paw stepped on top of him. His tired eyes gazed on the figure that slowly came into his eye of focus.

It was the Spine Tail. He had one of his hind paws pressed securely on his back, in the middle of his wings.

He screeched, partly in desperation and anger and partly due to the fear that he had failed his task of protecting the little bundles of joy.

A fighter he came out. An indignant snort came out.

He couldn't even guard his rump properly.

Still, he didn't give up. He thrashed widely trying to bite the leg that was keeping him glued to the floor.

It was unfortunate that they were stronger and heavier than him. He was easily overpowered. The vile paw pressed itself on his neck, cutting off his air supply.

His thrashing started to decrease when his vision filled with black dots.

The Skies! They are suffocating me! He yowled inwardly.

They were suffocating him. He tried to remove the paw, anything to gulp a mawful of air, his lings burning out as if he had inhaled fire itself.

Moments before he suffocated to death, the clawed paw removed itself.

Fresh air came crashing down his windpipe into his oxygen-depleted lungs. He was only focused on regaining the oxygen level that was severely depleted in his bloodstreams.

He didn't remember when he was lifted off the cold-stony floor. He didn't remember when two strong claws paws wrapped themselves around his torso, just before the point where his wings joining with his body.

His consciousness was barely aware of his numb body, much less about the surroundings.

He became aware of his state and position when his breathing slowed down to a shaken but steady rate. His throat felt as if someone had baked it from the inside.

He looked around to take in his position. He was flying. Sort of. More like dangling from the hindlegs of the emerald drake who was the unlucky victim of his claws.

They were taking him to the monster to be killed! By being eaten alive!

They brought him down the mountain where all the remaining dragons, hatchings...basically his whole nest was imprisoned. They were all huddled in fear. Many of them had scratches and chipped scales, but mostly they were superficial wounds.

The foreign invaders guarded them reverently.

Behind them, he saw some bloodied bodies of his kin lying on the dust. Some he recognised, others were too much bloodied and deformed to be identifiable. They were probably the only bodies remaining, Toothless mused, the others devoured by the Monster.

The two catchers took him in front of the Monster. They casually threw him down of the soil with a soft thud and bowed to IT.

For a lack of a better name, Toothless decided to call her 'IT'. IT didn't deserve any name.

IT lowered its head to take a more detailed sight of his quivering body and spoke, "Your kind are quite the fighters, I see."

Toothless glared up at IT. His quiver lessened for a moment when anger and repugnance filled his eyes. He would not show any weakness even if it was the last thing he would do. As his mother said, Death Strikers do not bow to any false queen such as the Monster in front of him. And he would not disappoint his mother.

He didn't say anything though. IT didn't deserve the benefit.

"Still are? Let me remedy that."

IT returned to its previous form, its five eyes, the sixth one being no more than a blob of dried blood and puss, left his form.

The cold dread that originated in his bones reduced itself with the departure of the eyes. Toothless slightly shivered from the traces of the sensation left by those eyes.

"Hear me now and forever remember my rule." The hoarse cranky yet rotten voice shouted. The elders and the scared-to-shit adults and teens started trashing from a strange hum that seemed to emit from the gigantic dragon.

Toothless was ...perplexed from the sight. Why were they thrashing and clutching their heads as if a Little Biter was biting into their skulls?

Where was the strange hum emanating from? Was it because of this hum? Then why was he not affected then?

All those strange questions that had no answers whorled through his exhausted mind while the fat Seadragonas Giganticus Maximus continued its charade.

"You will obey my every command, when I say, and exactly how I say it. And you will have no complaints. Anywho will oppose shall meet the same fate as your precious Death Strikers!"

Four eyes again focused on his apprehensive sight while the other two motioned for something to come over.

"But, that will not be the only thing you will have to endure. Heed this warning now, for any to try to defeat me will have their eggs and hatchlings meet this fate."

The emerald Spike Tail, the one who was carrying him in his maw, came over again and with a bow dropped something in front of IT.

It was oval-shaped, black and shiny.

His eyes widened into plates, soon to be popped out. It didn't take any guess to what it was.

It was one of the eggs. The one which contained one of his little half-formed siblings.

"What...What are you..", Toothless tried to speak but his vocal cords nearly snapped when a massive paw came down onto the egg, smashing it into oblivion.

Toothless lurched forward. He would've reached the paw if he wasn't held up by one of the lackeys, the reddish-orange Flame Skin.

"NOO!" He screamed.

The same dragon brought two more. They were placed in the same coordinates.

"PLEASE STOP! I WILL DO ANYTHING! PLEASE! DON'T!"

The paw came down again, smashing those too.

By now he could see the dead pulps of the half-formed hatching covered in goo.

Still and under formed, it was too soon for them to hatch.

And they were being killed right before his eyes.

This time another drake brought the last four.

"STOP IT! STOP IT PLEASE! I WILL DO EVERYTHING YOU SAY!PLEASE!" By now his vocal cords were close to breaking apart. His voice became too hoarse to be decipherable from all the crying.

He fought with the last drakaina holding him down, bawling his eyes out.

No one stepped in. No one helped.

He could not understand what happened to them, why were they not doing anything! His emotional turmoil razed his mind.

The massive paw came down one last time. All but one remained, the others crushed into a pulp. The last egg rolled his way, the smallest egg out of them all. He didn't notice it by then.

The runt.

Toothless broke free of the female's hold with a snarl, jumping forward to hold the last egg awkwardly in his paws. He vigorously searches it to see any sign of damage. It only had a small crack it.

His torn heart crumpled up into nothing. He growled up at that... that thing that ruined his life in a single day.

That took everything from him in a matter of hours.

Toothless' eyes leaked non-stop as he curled around that little egg, ready to protect it with his life. IT stepped over the pile of crushed eggs, eyes boring down into his.

He shrunk back like he was a hatchling again, but he didn't let go of the egg. IT's eyes fell to the runt egg in his paws. He trembled as he prepared for what would be his last moments with that egg.

He was sure that that thing will take it away too.

"I will let you keep this one, Death Striker. But make no mistake; any trouble from you and I kill it like the rest of your weak family. Am I in any way unclear when I say this?"

Toothless shook his head through his trembling.

IT stepped back. "Good. From this day forth I am your Queen, and you shall address me as so..." He blocked out everything that she said as he fell in a deep sleep, curled up tightly around the egg as a protective shield.

The Skies bestowed him with a night of dreamless slumber, one he would not be getting for many years from that day.

Unbeknownst to him, the little egg rocked a little in his paws until it fell silent like it's elder sibling.