Normally, Dart wasn't one to linger around doing nothing. But yesterday had been so exhausting that she had allowed herself a break, and now copied Ruffrunner's example. The nightlight's mother looked at her two beautiful children, thoughtlessly sprawled onto the cavern's floor in the warm air of the summer morning.
She then looked at the large, white, scaly roll of dragon, that despite being fully immobile was somehow visibly awake and emanating anger.
How was it possible? Just yesterday, Pouncer had together with his siblings terrorized a good portion of the hidden world with humans, causing uncountable psychological damage. What possible reason did he have to be upset?
"What is going on sweetie?" said Light soothingly as she let a wing drape over the muttering mass of dragon.
The mass in question growled quietly for some amount of time before answering, its voice sad and angry. "Get away, monster. All females are evil and I will never trust one of you again."
Oh. That was it.
"What did she do?" she asked, wanting to hear Pouncer's side of the story before assuming he was the one in the wrong.
As her son's face and eyes were hidden somewhere in the roll, she couldn't see his expression. The whining indicated humiliation.
"She said 'I am not going to mate with you just because you gave me regurgitated fish,'" whined the white ball. This was followed by somewhat inappropriate comments on what the nightlight had imagined doing after the rejection. Pouncer gave a big sigh. "Her heartlessness…"
Light was visibly worrying over what kind of events that could have led to this sentence, and how exactly her son hoped to ever appeal to someone using these methods.
"Now go away. Your gender is nothing but evil," whined Pouncer.
Light sighed. According to her, fifteen years old was somewhat too early to give up on love. And it hurt to see her son like that. "I'm not leaving before you take your face out of your wings and get some fish," she said while gently shaking Pouncer.
The white ball scoffed. "See? You pretend to care, just so that you can break my heart later once I trust you."
The light fury shook her head. "I care. Toothless cares. We haven't given up on you in fifteen years and that is not about to change now."
More whining. "Whatever… Bloody females."
This wasn't working. She needed a new approach. Apparently her son wasn't going to listen to her (not that he usually did). But there were other ways to make him get him to do stuff. "Fine. But just so you know, males aren't going to stop chasing us just because you can't see that."
She felt some movement from within the scaly ball. "What?"
"People are still finding mates. They are still falling into that trap that we call 'love,'" said Light. A smug smile made its way onto her face. "In fact, I have heard that your brother was getting interested in someone. He might end up with a mate before you."
"Ruffrunner might WHAT?!" roared Pouncer as he snapped out of his roll-form, his head once more held highly upon four firmly planted paws. Light looked at her no-longer-roll-shaped son happily. Since a few months back, he was larger than her and would soon be capable of standing up to the alpha toe to toe. And now, he also was not a sad moping roll on the floor.
Light gave a warm smile. "Just kidding. Quiet, Ruffrunner is still sleeping."
"Was still sleeping…" whined a pained voice from the cavern's floor. The owner of the voice had been woken up by his brother and it would likely take several minutes until he fell asleep again. Ugh.
Pouncer, on the other hand, shook his body and gave the biggest groan of his life. "How are people supposed to take me seriously if I stop my sulking so quickly?" he complained. For a short moment, Pouncer was afraid that future generations would think of him as something other than a strong, charming individual loaded with finesse.
"I'm going fishing," he said, as his stomach was the only part of him with a clear idea what to do.
"Good idea," said the light fury, just happy to have succeeded. She took in the ever further sounds of Pouncer's wingbeats. Hopefully he was going to be alright for a few hours.
Okay, the first task of the day was finished. Sadly, the next task would likely be much less pleasant. Light would have to face some of the hidden world's most insufferable creatures: adult female light furies. But the adult female light fury gave a smug smile. They would see.
Some light furies from 'that pack' had complained about three dragons invading their tunnel by being there and roaring, and were expecting a response.
It is important to note the reason it was 'their' tunnel in the first place. A few years ago, the light furies in question had begun a campaign of roaring about the importance of being aesthetically pleasing in the tunnel, and how dragons who weren't light furies could never hope to compete with them. Even other light furies had been chased off, as soon as their scales were deemed 'not clean enough.' In the end, everyone who was outside a certain group of elites had left due to not being able to stand the white dragons.
Slow wingbeats echoed into the tunnel as the three dragons entered it. Light had asked Rej for help, as the red dragon's talent for knowing what other dragons thought would be very useful for the diplomatic mission. Pinch, who had happened to be beside her sister, had accepted for the both of them. And so, the three of them would try to convince 'that pack' to be less arrogant.
"Are you sure that this won't end up in a bloodbath?" asked a worried Rej. "Two monstrous nightmares fly into the light furies' tunnel. I don't know if it's the start of a joke or of a horror story."
"I am completely sure that this may go fine," stated the light fury, reassuring the monstrous nightmares for a few seconds, until Rej understood the true meaning of her words. "What do you think they will be looking for?" asked Light.
Rej spewed out the answer in a fraction of a second. "Show off their superiority and get the former permission to treat others like dung."
The two other dragons cast an amazed look at her. "How can you say what others want so quickly?" asked the light fury.
The monstrous nightmare's eyes went downcast. "I was forced to learn after that dark night," she said quietly.
Light had absolutely no idea of the events of said dark night. It sounded dark, but in her experience, most nights tended to be. "Ah, yes. That dark night," said Light. "If you ever want to tell me what happened…"
Rej shook her head. "Noone else should be forced to know about it."
"She hasn't even told me," added Pinch between wingbeats. "Anyway, we are here."
The three dragons flared and landed, with Light at the front of the formation. Waiting for them was a large light fury, her scales brighter than ever and eyes not even trying to seem friendly. Off to a good start.
"Hello, pretty scale," said Light as soon as her paws touched the ground. She didn't see any reason to start with the insults.
But apparently the dragon in front of her did. "Why did you bring these?"
Light considered the dragon in front of her a jerk. She and the other light fury had known each other in the past, and Light remembered a dragon that looked down at everything and everyone, as well as being generally sour, as her name implied. Overall, not what you would call a nice dragon. "Pinch, Rej, meet Lemon. The leader of these light furies, and a nice dragon… overall."
And with these words, the jerk would now have to act like a decent person.
"Huh. Thanks. Hello, Pinch and Rej," said Lemon. The dragon was not happy about the presence of the monstrous nightmares. "Anyways, what about those troublemakers? Have you taught them their lesson?"
"We won't punish them until we know exactly what they have done," said Pinch before the other dragons could stop her. Lemon immediately cast the red dragon a suspicious look.
"That might not be the best way to put it…" started Light in an attempt to delay the anger as much as possible. "But yes, that is true," she concluded.
Lemon looked displeased. As always. "Fine. Let us start with the fact that one of them approached one of us and tried to court her."
Light nodded along, her mind wandering towards the possibility of biting off undercarriages… "Overeager males. I can't say that I am surprised," said Rej.
"That's not all," continued Lemon, apparently wanting to keep the moment of agreement as short as possible. "They roared, and disturbed the peace that we worked so hard to achieve," the light fury pointed to the tunnel they were in with a stretched wing. "This is intolerable, and that is the reason we want the alpha to exempt light furies from the no-violence rule."
"Wow," whispered Light, amazed at how blatantly this had been suggested and how correct Pinch's prediction had been. Now she only needed to explain why that was a terrible idea. "Do you remember why only light furies fish here in the first place?" she asked, while struggling to hold her anger.
"We convinced the others to leave, peacefully," stated Lemon confidently.
Light shook her head. "How can I say this…"
"You were too annoying for others to stand. And during that annoyance, the non-violence rule was the only thing stopping them from cutting your throats," was Pinch's accurate, though not that diplomatic response. "So why should you be allowed to be violent?"
"Pinch! That isn't nice!" barked Rej.
"Neither is she!" barked back Pinch, leaving the two light furies into a very intense and very awkward staring match.
Lemon chuckled, breaking eye contact."Pinch, Rej, don't take offence. But as you two just so kindly showed…." She pointed at the confrontation. "Other dragons lack the maturity to maintain order if they are violent," she explained with a sly smile. "But we light furies aren't like that. And we need the ability to deal with intruders."
Pinch murmured something about white sparkling worms and beluga whales who believe that they are someone.
Light put her paw down firmly. "We must also follow the rules, wise or not," she said decisively. There had to be no room for discussion. "And that includes not being violent to dragons that decide to roar. You know, like dragons do."
Lemon snorted. "I knew you would defend them. Really, that is to be expected. You would always defend those devilish children of yours," spat out the large ĺight fury, towering over Light.
The dragon in question was immediately taken on the defensive. "Excuse me?" she asked, for the first time afraid of the confrontation. Lemon knew something that she did not, and she hated it.
As in a gift from the sky, Rej gestured that she wanted to tell her something. Discreetly, Light moved closer to the monstrous nightmare, desperate for any knowledge Rej might have acquired.
"She's mad at you," whispered Rej into her right ear.
"I've noticed," she whispered back, somewhat disappointed.
Instead, it was their opponent who explained. "The dragons who intruded were hybrids between light furies and night furies. And I know who the mate of the sole night fury of this cavern is."
The alpha's mate was taken back by these words. "There must be a misunderstanding. I never told my children to go here!" she all but roared out. In an incredible show of self control, she did not add 'I do not want them to have anything to do with people like you.'
Lemon snorted. "Obviously," she said nonchalantly. "You gave life to those three abominations and now you can not even control them!"
For a moment, Light's muscles tensed, and fiery blue eyes locked onto the dragon in front of her. But attacking now, no matter how tempting, was not a good idea.
Light relaxed and took a moment to lick her paw, much to everyone's surprise. Slowly, the light fury let her tongue clean the white scales, where all eyes were now located. And under the three pairs of eyes, a row of razor-sharp claws were unsheathed. "You should not want light furies to be allowed to use violence," said Light calmly. "Since that rule is the only thing keeping me from murdering you right now."
Lemon was visibly shaken. But the arrogant dragon quickly found a way to turn this into an additional insult. "How does it feel? To be such a disgrace to your species?" said the white dragon in an utmost acid voice.
Light turned around and spread her wings. "Goodbye, and watch your back," she said with absolute calm before taking off. The three other dragons looked on astonished as the light fury disappeared into the distance.
One of the blood red dragons cleared her throat. "Nice to meet you Lemon but..." she started, not really daring to meet the light fury's very much mad eyes. "We have to go now," concluded the other blood red dragon before the two took off.
Toothless was calmly wandering down a populated tunnel when his head turned towards the familiar sound of his mate's wingbeats. "Hello, my piece of light!" he called out happily. The night fury then noticed the light fury's angry expression. "What happened?" he called out, jumping to meet her.
Light muttered angrily until her mate's wing soothingly wrapped around her. It took her a few long breaths to calm down. "I hate light furies," she said before explaining the earlier events and just how much of a bastard Lemon had been. After some intense moments of rambling, the light fury finally let go of her breath. "Anyway, she will not complain anymore and she doesn't harbour bad feelings towards the alpha," she concluded. "But I am not sure what she thinks of me."
"I am sure you gave her a few sleepless nights. Well done, my glimmering jewel," he said. His glimmering jewel purred back while nuzzling his neck. However, he could feel something was wrong. "Is there anything more?"
A sigh and a distorted smile. "Yeah. Have a guess at who the three dragons were."
How was he supposed to know? There were thousands of dragons in the hidden world, and he didn't know any particular trio. Well, except for… "No," he found himself saying. "Please tell me it's not them!" he shouted while looking at his mate for confirmation that this horrific suggestion wasn't true. But the only response he received was a sad nod. "What were they even doing over there?!" he called out in despair.
Light giggled at her mate's reaction. "Oh, my little piece of night. I am afraid our not-so-little hatchlings are starting to find other dragons… appealing."
The alpha did not look very happy. "Aren't they a bit too young for that?" he asked worriedly while thinking about his own experiences with the matter. "At their age I was…"
"Attacking human villages for a tyrannic queen, I know. But today's fifteen year olds have better things to do," explained the light fury while gently nudging his side. From there, the conclusion was obvious. "We might have to teach them… that."
"Come on. Is it really necessary?" complained Toothless. Light rejoiced as the mighty night fury, alpha of the hidden world, covered his head with his wings in embarrassment.
This time, it was the light fury who embraced her mate with her wing. "Aw, come on," she encouraged. "You know we will have to teach them sooner or later. And now seems like a good time to…"
They were startled by the loud thump of a dragon landing behind them. "Soon-to-be-not-alpha Toothless!" roared a loud, clear, angry voice. "I am challenging you to a duel!"
As the night fury's heart picked up, the artificial fin retracted quietly, an instinct Toothless had picked up in years of taking care of his lifeline to the sky. He couldn't afford the risk of it being ripped apart, whether by accident or intentionally.
Now, for almost all situations, violence was not allowed. Challenging the alpha was the exception of this rule. When Toothless had asked why this was the case, the elder dragons that had advised him in the first days of his rule had explained that duels made 'a peaceful transition of power' possible. This explanation had left Toothless perplexed and seeking for new advisors.
He snapped around to face his opponent, expecting the young, adrenaline pumped males that thought challenging the alpha was a good way to earn fame and power. In his twenty years of rule, a number of such idiots had attacked. Luckily, an equal number of them had been humiliated, because how exactly did they think it was a good idea to fight a night fury?
But as the dragon entered his field of view, Toothless' heart sank a little bit. The yellow monstrous nightmare in front of him was a female, and not a young one at that. She had to have at least his age, if not more.
"Why do you want to challenge me?" he asked, claws still sheathed. It wouldn't be a hard fight, but it was still not something he wanted to do.
"Cut out the talking before I rip your throat out," spat out the challenger. Angry yellow eyes glared at the night fury.
"Be careful, my piece of night," whispered Light, her body pressing against his before parting away for the duel. In theory, she knew that Toothless was going to be fine. But in practice, every time the alpha was challenged, she felt nervous. Though likely not as nervous as her mate.
The night fury quietly thanked his mate and looked at the nightmare "I care about you. You are a part of my realm. And as such, I want to know why you challenge me," he said solemnly.
"You know it perfectly, so get on with it!" roared the monstrous nightmare. And with those words, she leapt at him.
Time froze as Toothless looked at the monstrous nightmare in the eyes. Anger. But also something more. Desperation. He wouldn't hurt her, he decided. She didn't deserve it. Though the fact that she was moving at high speed towards him with outstretched claws did make the task somewhat more difficult.
The night fury's claws descended onto the rocky floor, finding grip in the many crevasses. From there, he waited until the nightmare came at just the right distance. The fraction of a second that the alpha waited felt far longer than that.
His muscles snapped, launching him sideways. The monstrous nightmare's claws cut through nothing but air.
He planted his front paws into the ground, making his back side swivel backwards, until he was once more facing the nightmare. There, he launched himself forwards with his back paws, heading for above the dragon.
Without using the vulnerable tail, any wingbeat taken would set him off course. As such, he gave a strong, calculated wingbeat to make himself turn, so as to line up with the other dragon's neck. His paws violently latched downwards, and he had her.
Now, a mere night fury was nowhere nearly heavy enough to keep down the large dragon. Nothing stopped her from trashing, or trying to hit him with her tail. But with his claws and teeth so close to his opponent's vital parts, the night fury could set a clear ultimatum. "Stop fighting or die!" he roared in the monstrous nightmare's ears, his voice as mad as he could manage.
After that, the only thing that could be heard in the cavern was the night fury's heavy breathing. All other dragons were still, their fearful eyes locked on him and the monstrous nightmare. Toothless recognized many of them, but his attention quickly returned to the dragon between his claws.
Slowly, the monstrous nightmare's muscles relaxed, making her neck and the night fury on it collapse onto the ground. Even slower, a silent whining emerged from the yellow dragon, only made stronger by the claws still ready to end her life. "Please don't kill me. I have hatchlings that need me."
Toothless was finally brought back to reality, and winced at how close he had been to being unforgivably cruel. "I will not kill you," he stated. His claws sheathed themselves to prove the point. "Now, why did you want to challenge me?"
The monstrous nightmare was shaking under his paws. "You brought humans here! And I want my children to grow up safe!" said her desperate voice. The dragon then looked at the surrounding crowd with narrowed eyes. "And since none of these cowards were going to do anything, I knew I had to," she spat out.
Toothless felt sad. He had expected his subjects to be a little less stupid. "Have it ever occured to you that you can ask me things before resorting to violence?" he asked with a noticeable amount of annoyance.
The resulting silence was indeed mildly awkward.
The face of the yellow dragon assumed a calmer expression, finally free from the previous desperation."If I had asked you to chop off the head of humans… would you have done it?" asked a sad yet hopeful voice.
Toothless just couldn't bring himself to be mad at the dragon that had just challenged him. Instead, he opted to reassure her. "These humans will not harm us. And if they ever want to hurt a dragon, I will make sure that they either get thrown out of the hidden world or find themselves lacking a head. Or both." The night fury stepped off the yellow dragon and for the first time, gave her a smile. "I promise that your children are safe."
And for the first time, a glint of happiness appeared in the other dragon's eyes. "I hope so," she said with a sigh. The dragon then gritted once more, displaying a row of sharp teeth."If that is not the case…"
Toothless, his heart still pounding in his chest, couldn't help himself but growl back. The monstrous nightmare that he had just annihilated in a fight went quiet. And though this gave him some angry looks, no one could deny that it was true.
He shook his head and motioned to the yellow dragon to rise up. "I will keep that in mind. Now go home. It sounds like there are people who need you."
The other dragon got back to her feet and once more faced the night fury. "You're not an awful alpha," she said. "My name is May, by the way." After that, she quickly darted out of view.
Toothless wondered why she had told him her name. Perhaps she didn't want her memory to disappear. Perhaps she expected to see him again, and again become relevant to the story. Or perhaps she just wanted to make his mate jealous.
Toothless yelped as Light materialised at his side. She looked at him sternly, but he couldn't help but recognize the playful tint behind the facade. "How does it feel to have females literally leaping at you?" growled Light. "And you're doing it right in front of your mate," she added. "How shameless of you."
The night fury looked at her blankly for a few seconds. He then wheezed loudly, his chest immediately feeling much lighter. Deciding to meet the challenge, he went on the defensive. "Oh, but honey! I would never be attracted to someone of a different species!" he claimed wholeheartedly to reassure her.
The monstrous nightmare's previous murderous glare was nothing in comparison to what his mate was giving him right now.
"Aaanyway, what were we doing earlier? We had something to teach to those little troublemakers right?" said Toothless as he tried to move his throat away from the claws.
Light remembered and nodded. "Oh, that's right. Let's go."
The alpha and his mate found their offspring on the top of a cliff.
Dart pointed at the jump below, and at an arch-shaped rock structure near the bottom. "So: we are not allowed to take wingbeats. The goal is to dive down, pass below the arch, and fly back here" she explained. The nightlight took a concentrated look at the course to calculate the best possible route. "This is about turning with the maximum possible efficiency, and some light pain in the wings."
"Do you think I should give Laura another chance?" responded Pouncer after not listening to a word. "I am not sure she deserves it but… (sigh)"
The night fury and the light fury landed right beside them and looked at them. Unfortunately, their offspring either didn't notice or didn't care, busy arguing between themselves.
"Disobedient hatchlings…" murmured Light. She then gave a worried croon to her mate, remembering one more such hatchling. "How is the deadly nadder from yesterday?"
"It disobeyed its mother and jumped into the air, but the wing held," crooned Toothless, wrapping his tail over his mate. The light fury purred. If the seam lasted even a fraction of his prosthetic fin, the nadder would be fine.
Less than two minutes later, the nightlights noticed their parents' presence. Toothless stated what they were about to learn. "Pouncer, Dart, Ruffrunner, today I will teach you how to fight."
His mate winced at the words."What?" she asked with surprised, and honestly displeased eyes. "I thought we would teach them…"
The alpha shook his head. "I am sorry Light. But today, a monstrous nightmare challenged me, and I want them to be able to stand up on their own. It seems somewhat more important, don't you think?" he asked with a smug smile.
Ruffrunner gave a pained moan. "We're learning how to fight?" asked one of the nightlights. "Can't we learn something slightly less tiring?"
"Fighting as in actual fighting or as in…" Pouncer displayed a suggestive smile. "'wrestling?'"
Dart's blue eyes looked intensively at her brothers. Especially at their beautiful, exposed necks, which just seemed to be begging for her claws. "This is a great idea. Thank you dad!" she barked, ecstatic.
For whatever reason, Toothless gave a big sigh.
At the same time on Berserker island, a viking's mind was restless for an answer.
Deciding that the upcoming confrontation was still better than living with the unresolved question, Ulf knocked on the door. The captain opened and gave him a frown. Not that the captain knew Ulf, but he wasn't much for visitors. Ulf also noted a light smell of alcohol. The inside of the Captain's hut was surprisingly clean, except for a large barrel of mead in its middle, which explained the smell.
"Have you found dragons during your last trip?" asked Ulf bluntly. Like the captain, he wasn't much for small talk.
A split second passed. The captain looked at him and growled before the door was slammed shut.
Ulf stared at the closed door for some time, mildly in shock. The captain's… manners… were well known on the island, but to actually experience them for himself was something else. But Ulf had seen it. A minute widening of the viking's eyes, in the split second before he had been shut out. He had not gotten an answer, and would likely not fare better in the future. But what had previously been an impossible fable told by sailors was not a strong possibility in Ulf's mind.
However, to actually do something about the possibility required one more piece of information. When Ulf was ten, the raids had ended. When Ulf was sixteen, dragons had disappeared. Ironically, for all their vocal despite of dragons, many dragon hunters found themselves complaining over having lost their jobs. And some of them had started a search for a place where there were more beasts to hunt.
Fumbling in an old warehouse, Ulf coughed lightly at the decade old dust. He had been a focused, promising dragon hunter, eager to rid the world of the beasts. But unlike others, he had felt joy when the task turned out to be completed. Still, the sudden disappearance left him anything but confident. It sickened him seeing all those hunters hoping to find the terrifying beasts again. But apparently their work could prove useful. He pulled out the product of their search.
A large map of the archipelago that had been made after the dragon's disappearance, with black crosses drawn over all places that had been searched and dragons had not been found.
The paper was old, but still recognizable, and Ulf took it out to study it in the daylight. All major islands on the archipelago, and practically all even minor land masses had been crossed over. The tales of the battle of New Berk told of thousands of dragons. So where could they all have gone?
Over the fruitless years, excitement in the map had diminished, and people had gradually stopped expanding it. The consensus was that if dragons were still out there they would eventually be found, and people would deal with the beasts when that time came.
It seemed that the time had arrived.