Chapter Number: 3 / 9
Book Number: 1 (Lycanwing)
Planned at: 30 March 2022
Book Summary:
History may not repeat itself, but it rhymes with present. This rang true for inhabitants in Meridian of Misery. Stoick learned that keeping secrets would only hurt himself. Furious learned that future could never be set in stone. Wodensfang desperately grasping their long-forgotten past. Hiccup and Toothless came at the right time in the wrong place. It was not surprising that they played with their fate, as destiny claimed the very dragons they were meant to protect.
Pairing:
- Hiccup (Lycanwing Night Fury) x Toothless (Female Night Fury)
Warnings:
- AU and OOC characters with some movie/show canon aspects.
- Book HTTYD aspects and characters.
- Possible psychological horror.
- Female Toothless.
"What is this?" – Normal Speech
'What is this?' – Thought
"What is this?" – Telepathy / Reading / Flashback (Depends on context)
"What is this?" – Dragonese (Dragon speaking)
"What is this?" – Voiceover
Lycanwing – Knowledge
One year passed since the devastating dragon raid. After some recovery, things were back to normal.
Hiccup was reading in his room. He was at the desk, sitting on the chair and reading his book. It was night-time outside, and the room was illuminated by a lantern at the corner of the table. Notably, this one was not a language book. The boy had been studying languages last year. It was time for him to read and study other books and scrolls at the giant crate.
Once Hiccup learned two or three languages, the rest of them became easier for him to learn. Knowing multiple languages were useful, as it allowed him to read the contents of books and scrolls that they had purchased last year. The books and scrolls had plethora of knowledge. It was his dream come true to learn everything he could get his hands on.
He had finished reading several scrolls and books already. There were books about math, philosophy and others. There were also books and scrolls about alchemy, which talked about chemistry and other various interesting things. There was also books about magic. Unfortunately, it was not something he could learn, as it would require him to be gifted with magic. He read them anyway, as the knowledge might be useful someday.
The current book he was reading was written by a particularly well known Chinese general. The book was written in Chinese. Since Hiccup knew the language, he had no problem understanding them. It talked about a lot of things, mostly making enemies surrender without giving too much fight. It was obvious to the boy that the general knew what he was talking about. He found those books interesting.
Suddenly, the door flew open. Stoick had come in to see him. "Hiccup."
The boy looked up from his book. He turned to look at his father. "Hey dad."
Ever since last year when he woke up feeling sick, his father had been spending more time with him. Hiccup did not understand why, but he did not complain about spending more time with his father. Nobody seemed to notice that change of behaviour, since it was not significant. But as his son, Hiccup noticed.
Not that he complained. Hiccup wanted to spend more time with his father.
"I uh…" Stoick fumbled for a moment. He seemed like he expected him to be asleep already. "… Do you want to play Maces and Talons downstairs with me?"
The boy smiled. He closed the book and stood from the chair. "Okay!"
The father and son sat on the opposite side of the table. Both were at the living room, sitting next to the warm hearth of the lit fireplace. There was the certain game board on the table, but the pieces were not yet arranged. Stoick began arranging the pieces.
While the chief was arranging the pieces, Hiccup had brought the book for him to read. Stoick was happy that his son was enjoying himself. He was becoming a linguist, something nobody in the village had any proficiency. Unfortunately, it was not something useful for the village. However, it would greatly help him if he ever went to travel outside Meridian of Misery.
After Stoick finished arranging the pieces, he gestured to his son. "You go first."
Hiccup looked up from his book. The boy moved a piece, before looking back to the book. Stoick was surprised. He looked like he was not even paying attention.
"Hiccup?"
The boy looked up from the book. "Yeah?"
"Pay attention." Stoick reminded him.
"Okay." Hiccup nodded, before looking back to his book.
Stoick was annoyed. He moved his pieces, before looking back to his son. "Remember what I told you before." He reminded him. "You need to stay focus."
Hiccup moved his piece, glancing at the game board. "Yes, dad."
The chief grimaced. He thought it would be a long night. The man decided that it was best to punish him by defeating the boy. He moved his own piece, before looking at his son with a frown.
The game went somewhat smoothly. Hiccup kept on reading the book and playing the game, while Stoick was trying to get Hiccup pay attention to the game. The man was getting frustrated; his son was not paying much attention to it.
After some time, the chief threw his hands up. "Hiccup, I bought those books for you to learn. There are time to learn and time to play. This is time to play."
Hiccup looked up from his book. "But I'm playing with you."
"You are reading your book." Stoick firmly spoke to him.
"I know." Hiccup responded as he moved his piece. "… checkmate."
Stoick blinked, not expecting him to say that. It was only five minutes into the match. He looked down at the game board in front of them. "What the…" He muttered, shocked at the scene in front of him.
His Viking Chief piece was trapped around his own pieces at the corner. Hiccup's Kingship and Chief Marauder pieces locked its movement, and his Dragon piece was ready to take the Viking Chief piece in the next move. Stoick could not believe his eyes. He had been defeated so quickly by his own son.
"I was focused the entire game." Hiccup admitted, getting his attention. "You're too busy trying to make me focus."
Stoick looked stumped. "… how did you do that?"
"I don't need to do anything. You did it yourself." The boy pointed out. He was smiling at him. "The opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself."
It was then Stoick understood. Hiccup had tricked him. His son could reliably multitask, which was something that he never knew he could do. The fact that his son understood what he had done made him proud. It was a simple trick. Yet, he understood what he had done.
'That book made him smarter.' Stoick thought, feeling proud. It was a great investment.
Hiccup was smiling at his father. The man looked at him, proud at his son's accomplishment. They did not say anything, however. The chief slowly looked down to the game board. He rearranged it. The boy went back to read his book.
After Stoick finished rearranging it, he gestured to his son. "You go first."
"AAAAH!"
"FALL BACK! FALL BACK!"
In a random village somewhere at Barbaric Archipelago, there was a dragon raid. The houses were mostly made of wood, but certain structures were made of stones. Unlike most villages, however, this one seemed to be more sophisticated. There were giant torches and catapults, but there were also ballista and other giant bows and arrows contraption around the place.
As a result, they were more fortified to fight against dragons. The raiding parties were struggling to break through their defences. Vikings were killing them one by one using those contraptions. The dragons barely stole some food, and they were trying to retreat.
A Deadly Nadder was frantically flying around the village, holding a yak on its claws. "We need to go, now!" It shouted to its friends. Suddenly, there was a whistle, and a ballista arrow struck its chest. The dragon fell to the ground, dead. The yak quickly got up and ran away from the place.
Two Deadly Nadders were watching from above. "By the skies above!" One of them exclaimed. "This is a slaughter!"
"They have too many of those things." The other commented. "We never faced them before. Where did they get them?!"
Suddenly, there was a loud, piercing shriek. The two dragons looked up to see certain black dragon diving towards the village. "Charcoal is here!"
The Vikings instantly knew who it was. "NIGHT FURY!"
"GET DOWN!"
"KRAAAAA!" BOOM!
A large explosion struck a large deposit of ballista munitions. The place exploded in fiery fire, throwing everything into disarray. Vikings immediately went off running there, trying to salvage as much munition as possible.
Charcoal was confused. Vikings at Barbaric Archipelago were not supposed to have something like that. It was most likely that the village had some relation with Vikings at Greater Archipelago. The placement of each structures reinforced this idea. It was interesting to face against things that he often fought against years ago.
His main objective was to cover their retreat. Thankfully, there were not that many dragons around left. The giant torches were the problem, as it was intended to help spot dragons flying in the air. He snapped his wings and dove onto it; his signature shriek echoed throughout the village.
"KRAAAA!" BOOM!
The giant torch exploded, sending burning coal and oil all over the village. Charcoal flew back up to observe. The dragons had successfully escaped. Seeing that his job was done, the Night Fury headed towards the retreating raiding party.
The crowd was far enough from the island. Charcoal came close to them. He noticed that there were a lot of injured dragons there. "How many of you left?"
"Charcoal!" One of the dragons greeted him. "Finally! If only we have you sooner…"
"I was in another raid when Alpha told me to help you guys." Charcoal informed them. "How many of you left?"
"There were 50 of us, now we're down to 10." A Monstrous Nightmare spoke. It was flying close to him. "Most of us were injured. I don't know how much longer we can fly."
Charcoal observed the crowd. 'This was all that's left?' He thought, horrified. The black dragon looked around, trying to find an empty island anywhere. He spotted one not far from there.
"We need to treat the injuries." The Night Fury declared.
The other dragons looked at him with incredulous expression. "What?! But-"
Charcoal simply glared at him. "Now." He growled, making them gulp.
The dragons flew to the empty island. It was a small, barren island. They landed at the shore. Upon landing, the dragons immediately collapsed, as they were all exhausted and injured from the raid. They were hissing in pain, as some had weapons embedded in them.
The Night Fury checked the dragons. From 10 that came back, only 2 were healthy. The two seemed to be the leader of the raiding party; a pair of Deadly Nadders. Charcoal moved to tend the injured, as he did not want them to die after their retreat.
The black dragon reached for a wounded Gronckle. It had a spear embedded onto its stomach. "I'm going to pull this out. It's going to hurt. Ready?"
The Gronckle hissed. "Do it."
Charcoal held the spear with his teeth, before slowly pulling it out. He wanted to be careful as not to leave the spear tip in its body. The rock dragon hissed in pain. "Grarrr…"
Once that was done, Charcoal dropped the bloodied spear. He looked at the two Deadly Nadders. "Lick the wound. I'll help the others!"
The Night Fury reached for a wounded Monstrous Nightmare. It had several hatchets embedded on its body. "Turn over."
The dragon did as he was told. It laid on its back, ready to have the weapons pulled off from him. Charcoal used his mouth to pull the hatchets one by one. The Monstrous Nightmare winced; thankfully, those did not seem to sink deep into its body. It was recoverable. Once it was done, the dragon looked at the Night Fury, admiration in his eyes. "Thank you."
Charcoal simply nodded. He looked back to the Gronckle from before. It was licking its own wound. He looked at the Deadly Nadders. The two were simply standing there, watching him. That confused and angered the Night Fury. "What are you doing?! We have injured here!"
"We're supposed to leave them behind." One of the Deadly Nadder replied.
"… What?"
"It will take time for them to recover." The other Deadly Nadder explained. "We need to fill up our raiding quota. Alpha will give us new dragons to replace the dead."
"AND YOU JUST LET THEM DIE?!" Charcoal exploded, making them cringe at his roar.
"Alpha will kill us all if we didn't fill up the raiding quota." The first Deadly Nadder meekly answered. "Wounded or not wounded. We're just trying to survive. He doesn't care about our condition; as long they're alive, they can do dragon raids. That's what he told us."
Charcoal simply stared. He could not believe what he had heard. He never really interacted with raiding parties, mostly since everyone had their role assigned with Furious. He never really allowed him to see them. 'Dad didn't care?' He thought.
"This is war." The other Deadly Nadder spoke to him. "Dragons die all the time."
Something in Charcoal snapped. He leaped to that Deadly Nadder and pinned it to the ground. The dragons around them were shocked; not expecting him to attack their own. He took a deep breath and let out a long, deafening roar. "KRAAAAAAAAAA!"
When that was done, the Night Fury looked at the Deadly Nadder under him with murderous expression. It was terrified. Charcoal was apoplectic that they dared to say such thing to wounded dragons.
"What the-"
The other Deadly Nadder tried to separate them. "Charcoal, wait!"
Charcoal snapped to the other Deadly Nadder. "SHUT IT!" He roared at them. "YOU ARE WORTHLESS IF YOU THINK LIKE THAT! Those dragons have mates and hatchlings, waiting for them back at their nest!"
He looked down to the terrified dragon under him. "And how dare you say that about them!" He roared. "They're your friends! Your comrades! They fought tooth and claw for this war! You're here acting like they're cannon fodder that can be replaced in a whim!"
"But-"
"Would you leave them behind if they were your family?" Charcoal challenged them. There was no response. Everyone was silent as they watched the interaction. "Or are you so much of a coward that you rather throw them to those humans and slaughtered like helpless prey?"
The silence was so deafening, nobody dared to breathe. Charcoal continued speaking. "You treat these dragons like they're expendable." He unsheathed his claws, bearing it onto its neck. "Maybe I should remind you that you're expendable too, hmm?"
The Deadly Nadder struggled, but Charcoal held them down. "Please." He pleaded.
Suddenly, Charcoal felt pain in his head. He was suddenly compelled to stop and jump off from the dragon. The Night Fury did as what he was mentally commanded. Once he done that, he shook his head, recovering from the mind control. He knew who it was; Furious had stopped him from torturing them.
"Charcoal." He heard Furious sternly spoke to him. "Enough. Leave them."
Charcoal looked up to the sky. "Alpha, I-"
"Ssh…" Furious stopped him. "… do what you have to do. They are mine to deal with."
The Night Fury heard the two Deadly Nadders flying away. He assumed that they would be dealing with Furious next. Charcoal took a deep breath, before relaxing himself. He turned to look at the injured dragons, who were staring at him with admiration.
Charcoal did not say anything. He walked to a Gronckle that had a long ballista arrow pierced through its belly. It was a miracle that this dragon was even alive!
The black dragon took a deep breath. "I'm going to snap this one, so I can pull it from the other side." He explained to the rock dragon. "Are you ready?"
"… Yes." The Gronckle breathed out, wanting to get it over with.
Toothless was in a dilemma.
She had been living in Barbaric Archipelago for roughly a year. Charcoal was courting her. He seemed to be promising so far. The dragon liked to flirt with her, and there were times where they would cuddle together instead of saying anything. However, until recently, he seemed to prefer relaxing and cuddling with her more.
Toothless was not sure what to think of it. Here she was, being courted by a dragon serving in Dragon Rebellion. He did not really like talking about his participation in the war, but he did mention them from time to time to offer her to join. As much as she loved him, she wanted to pull him out of the war, not the other way around!
Toothless heard flaps of wings outside. The female Night Fury was resting inside her nest, waiting for Charcoal. Few moments later, she saw him entering her nest. Charcoal looked utterly exhausted. His body was drenched in water. She wondered what happened to him.
Charcoal came close to her, before collapsing. "Harrr…" He breathed out. "Hi! I hope I'm not late…"
"You're not…" The dragoness mumbled as she got up from the ground. She came close to him, trying to find out what went wrong. She smelled tears and sweat from him, as well as dragon blood.
"I uh…" Charcoal mumbled, shuffling his paws. "Sorry, I didn't bring any fish this time. I'll bring double tomorrow! What do you think?"
Charcoal tried to be cheerful, despite his exhaustion. Toothless felt something shifted in her heart upon seeing him at that state. "Charcoal, what happened to you?"
The male dragon let out a long sigh. "Hrr…" He groaned a bit. "Give me some time."
They both stayed silent. Toothless nudged the exhausted dragon. "Come on. Get up. You need to get yourself dry. Did you tried to clean up dragon blood from your scales?"
The male dragon let out a long whine. "Haaarrr…" He stood from the ground. His legs were shaking. The male black dragon looked down and flamed his temporary bed. He circled around, burning the stone with his plasma flame. Once that was done, the dragon lay down on top of it. He felt relaxed to feel the warmth on his scales. "Hrr…"
Toothless came close to him. She moved under his wings and leaned onto him. The two dragons purred, feeling comfortable under each other's embrace. They were happy to be together again, even though they were still technically in courtship.
"Hrr…" The dragoness purred as she snuggled closer to him. Even though Charcoal was exhausted, she felt safe under him. The male dragon felt comfortable to have her snuggled on his side, under his wing.
They stayed like that for some time. Charcoal was recovering from his exhaustion. The dragoness was still curious to see him at that state. It was the first time he had ever gotten himself like that.
"So…" Toothless started. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Charcoal slowly turned his head towards her. His eyes were half-lidded, and his pupils were fully dilated. "… I just bailed a raiding party off from a horribly failed raid." He explained to her. "Of 50 dragons that came in, 10 managed to escape. 2 of them were the raiding party leaders; they don't seem to be doing anything. The rest were wounded."
Toothless softened her expression. Charcoal continued speaking. "For the first time in my life, I actually came to check on the raiding party." He admitted. "I had to treat their wounded. There's just… so much screaming and blood. I've done my best, but…"
The male dragon trailed off. Toothless was concerned. "… Charcoal." She softly spoke. "That's the reality of war."
Charcoal looked away. "… I know." He muttered, before closing his eyes. "My dad kept telling me about the horrors of war; he doesn't want me to join, all those years ago. I'm already used to it."
"… but what makes me angry is how those raid party leaders treat their dragons." The male dragon growled. He bared his teeth as he stared off to a wall. "How could they do this? Why did he allowed it to happen? Is this why he didn't let me see the raiding party after a raid?"
Toothless whirred her mind when she heard that. 'His dad?' She wondered. 'Who is he?'
"… I guess this is the consequences of my own action." Charcoal bitterly whispered. "I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. If I failed to do what I do, dragons would die. But after seeing how that raiding party treat their dragons…"
The dragoness decided to disregard the red flags. However, she felt like she needed to be careful with what she said. "… Charcoal." She carefully spoke. "Have you thought about leaving altogether?"
Charcoal snorted. "Retire?" He blandly responded as he stared at her. "At the age of 12? I wish it was that simple. My dad would tell me 'I told you so.' Then, he'd force me to keep going until the end of the war. He's just discipline like that."
"He can't force you if you just run away." Toothless suggested.
"Now you're suggesting desertion." Charcoal humorously spoke. "I should probably arrest you for that."
The dragoness knew it was an empty threat. He loved her too much for that. She softened her eyes. "I mean, that's your choice. That's an option."
"There's nowhere I can run or hide, where he won't hunt me down and make me fight this war." Charcoal admitted. "Alpha talks to other alpha. Greater alpha talks with other greater alpha. There's nowhere in Meridian of Misery where I can hide from him."
'Greater alpha?' Toothless thought, horrified. She knew the insinuation, but she needed to confirm what she suspected.
"If I may ask." Toothless nervously asked. "Who's your dad?"
Charcoal eyed her. He looked tired. "Furious."
The dragoness choked on her breath. "Furious?" She squeaked, extremely nervous.
"Yes."
'By the stars, moon and skies above, I'm courting Furious' son!' Toothless mentally screamed at herself. 'May the skies have mercy on my poor soul, please don't let anyone know about this.'
"You don't smell like son of alpha. They usually have this specific scent that showed their authority." Toothless commented. She paused, before carefully asked. "… your father did mark you, did he?"
"I've been washing my body away from foreign scents." Charcoal admitted.
Toothless scrunched her face. "Why would you do that?"
"Because dragons would know who I am." Charcoal explained to her, somewhat uncomfortable with the topic. "I don't like them knowing me. The first time I participated in raids, they'd taunt me for who I am. They treated me like I'm an authority – like some sort of fragile hatchling that need to be coddled all the time."
Toothless could relate to that. Her own father coddled her a lot back then. It took her some time to finally get out from his reach.
"I don't like being treated like that. I wanted to be treated equally." The male dragon admitted. "So, I just… grab one of those 'soap' thing that human use and washed my body. I do this every day."
They stayed silent for some time. Then, Charcoal decided to ask. "What about you?"
Toothless tilted her head. "Me?"
"Yeah." Charcoal nodded. "Who's your father?"
Toothless instantly became nervous. "I uh…" She stuttered. "I haven't been with my dad for a long time. I don't really have a good relationship with him. I've been in an egg for over a thousand year, so I never get to meet my mother. My dad is over a thousand-year-old."
Charcoal slowly nodded. "You refused to hatch that long?"
"Oh, it's not that." The dragoness shook her head. "He told me that it's magic. Apparently, there's this place called ley lines, where magic of the earth flows. When I was an egg, my mom accidentally knocked me into the water where one of those ley lines were. They didn't know at the time, and they assumed the egg was gone. They couldn't find my egg for over a thousand years."
The male dragon paid close attention to her. Toothless continued speaking. "My mother was a dragon sorceress, so she can do magic." She admitted. "She… passed away before she could bear another clutch of eggs. I was the only child that she ever birthed."
Charcoal softened his eyes. "I'm sorry to hear that."
Toothless shrugged her wings. "I'm already over it." She admitted. "… I was an egg for over a thousand years. A dragon sorcerer came to my dad when the ley lines under his roost was gone. Apparently, I had been absorbing them the whole time. They finally found me, and so, here I am!"
Charcoal gave her a wry smile. "So, you're a powerful sorceress." He mused. "You could make me bend to your will and all that, do all sorts of magic?"
Toothless' smile dimmed. She looked down. "I uh…" She was nervous. "… I wish I could."
Charcoal was confused. Toothless continued speaking. "The first thing my dad did after I hatched was to seal my magic." She explained. "I didn't even know what he had done until I was 5, when I met the same sorcerer that sealed my magic. Dragons in Meridian of Misery despised magic. There's also Vikings that's really into hunting dragons that can do magic."
"Oh." The male dragon did not know what to say. He pulled her closer into him, making her purr in comfort.
"Hrr…" Toothless purred. It was something that she wanted to talk about for a long time. Not even Amber knew about it. There were time where she felt shame for having that ability, even if it was sealed inside her. She felt that she could trust Charcoal of that information.
"… I think magic is fine." Charcoal admitted.
Toothless perked up. She looked at him with surprise. "Really?"
"Yeah." The male dragon nodded. "There's nothing to be ashamed of. It's like human contraptions; magic is just a tool for you to use. They can do a lot of bad things, but they can also do a lot of good things too. We shouldn't be blaming the tool because it do bad things; we should blame the ones using them."
They fell silent. The female dragon simply stared at him. Charcoal wondered what she was thinking. The dragoness had her eyes glistened, as if she was about to cry. The male dragon was concerned. "Are you okay?"
"I- I'm fine." Toothless responded. Her voice wavered a bit. "It's just… nobody ever told me something like that before. Not even my dad. They just told me how much they hate magic."
"Well." Charcoal hummed. He moved to lick her forehead. "I read human books from time to time. Some of the topics were about magic. I can't use magic, but knowledge is knowledge. In case those were used against me, I know how to deal with it."
Toothless stared at him with wide eyes. Charcoal continued speaking. "If you want, I can relay them back to you."
"… you really know about magic?" Toothless whispered disbelievingly. He could not use magic, but he wanted to teach her magic. That was strange to hear.
"Yup!" Charcoal smiled at her. He pulled away from her and stood from the ground. "In fact." He spoke as he moved to face her. "I've read a book about how to unseal magic on your own. The instruction was made for those who was unwillingly sealed."
Charcoal remembered reading those books when he was awake. Magic books were interesting to him, since there were a lot of things that magic could do. Even if he could not use them, they were still useful to know.
"You-" Toothless choked on her breath. "You can?"
"Not me. I can't do magic." Charcoal shook his head. "You'll be doing this yourself. I'll recite you the instruction. How's that?"
Toothless was ecstatic. She stood from the ground. "Yes!" She eagerly nodded.
"Right." Charcoal nodded. "Now, close your eyes and focus."
The dragoness laid down. She closed her eyes. The male dragon continued speaking. "Now… uh…" He frowned as he tilted his head. The instruction made no sense to him. "Focus within yourself and find the cage of your magic."
Toothless stayed silent. Charcoal wondered if the instruction was correct, as he was simply reciting what he read from the book. After some time, the dragoness spoke. "Okay. I found it."
The male dragon let out a relieved sigh as he sat on his hindlegs. He felt like leading a blind as a blind himself. "Oh, good. The next step is about breaking that cage. There's… couple ways to do it. The first way need another sorcerer to help you. The second way is independent, but it requires a strong emotion."
"Just tell me how to do it myself." Toothless growled.
"Grab the cage and will it to break." Charcoal recited the instruction in his memory. "Bring up all the good things in your life. Use those memories to strengthen your will."
The dragoness seemed to focus. Five minutes passed. Charcoal wondered if Toothless was successful. The male dragon never really understand how that worked, but Toothless was able to do them. He assumed that this was something that only those with magic could do.
Suddenly, Charcoal felt wave of power. It came from Toothless. Her scales glowed with blue colour as mixture of red and green aura shimmered around her. It felt extremely powerful, like the entire world came bearing down onto him. It was then he realised how powerful Toothless could've been as a sorceress, had her magic was not sealed.
Toothless snapped open her eyes. It was glowing bright with power. The dragoness suddenly leaped forward and crashed onto Charcoal. She came down onto him and pinned him on the ground.
The male dragon felt scared. He was laying on his back and Toothless was on top of him. The dragon sorceress was staring at him with her glowing, acidic eyes. She was breathing heavily as she stared at him with fully dilated pupils. After some time, the dragoness collapsed on top of him. She let out a loud, long purr.
"Hrr…" She purred. Charcoal felt like the whole world resonated with her. "… thank you."
"T- There's still more." Charcoal nervously spoke. "The last instruction. Relax yourself and let it flow in you. Don't stop until you stopped feeling… whatever you're feeling right now."
Toothless relaxed herself. She closed her eyes. The male dragon felt the pressure slowly ebbing. It took them roughly an hour until that feeling was completely gone. The glow on her scale turned gold, before completely disappeared. When it was done, the dragoness opened her eyes. Charcoal noticed that it was simply shimmering in the dark. There was power behind her eyes.
"Charcoal…" Toothless whispered. She snuggled closed into him. Her voice wavered. "… thank you so much."
The male dragon wrapped his arms around her. "Anything for you, Toothless."
"I- I never thought I could ever do magic." Toothless sniffed. "I never thought I could ever do what my mom could…"
They both stayed silent, feeling comfortable with the embrace. The two dragons were purring, happy that they had achieved something important. For Toothless, she felt herself whole – like a missing piece that she never knew she had snapped in place. The dragoness could finally do magic. It was all thanks to Charcoal, who had read about magic, despite not being able to use it.
"… are you going to tell me more about magic?" Toothless mumbled under his scales.
"I don't… really have that much time to teach you." Charcoal admitted. "I have duties that I have to do."
"That's fine." Toothless muttered. "Can I copy your knowledge? I need access to your mindscape."
Charcoal was confused. "… what?"
"Your mindscape?" The dragon sorceress questioned. "I wanted to learn about magic." Then, she became nervous. "I know I'm probably asking too much, but-"
"No, no. It's not that." Charcoal interrupted her. "What do you mean by mindscape?"
"… what?" Toothless jumped off him. She was utterly confused by that reaction. "You don't know about mindscape?"
Charcoal flipped himself and stood from the ground. "No." He admitted. "I've never heard of it. It's not even mentioned."
Toothless reared, as if she had been struck. "What?!" She roared. "You don't know?!"
Charcoal immediately cowered. Her voice was much, much terrifying after she regained her magic. It demanded his submission, and it was far stronger than he expected. He was not used to have her able to do that. "N- No?" He nervously answered. "Is it something that you can do?"
"Charcoal, it's something that ALL dragons can do. It's the most important aspect of how dragons work." Toothless patiently explained to him. It was obvious that she was angry that he did not know about this. "You're telling me that you, Charcoal, a Night Fury, son of Furious the Greater Alpha, did not know about mindscape?"
"… No." Charcoal calmed himself down. He stared at her with strange expression. "No, I don't."
They stayed quiet after some time. Then, Toothless slumped her shoulder. "I guess that's something similar with us." She admitted. "You know about magic despite not being able to use it. I don't know magic at all, and it was sealed from me. You don't know anything about mind arts. I am a master of mind arts."
Charcoal stayed silent. He did not know what to say. Toothless moved to stare at him with shocked expression. "Your dad really didn't tell you anything about this?"
Charcoal shook his head. "No."
Toothless grimaced. "… what is the species of your dad?" She asked. "Is he a Night Fury?"
Charcoal opened his mouth, before closing it again. He tilted his head, confused. "He was, but… I actually don't know." He admitted. "I know that he's a massive dragon now, living there at Dragon Island. My mom was a Night Fury." He paused, before adding. "My dad did tell me about my inheritance! He taught me about using lightning, but that was it."
Toothless blinked. That was something she was not even aware of. "Okay." She simply replied. "Let me tell you a bit more about our species."
The dragon sorceress took a deep breath. "Night Furies are famously known for mind arts. We are known as mind proficient species." She explained. "It's something that came naturally with us. Mind arts allowed us to read dragons' minds and thoughts. It allowed us to access things that they have in mind. It allowed everyone to communicate from afar."
"Normally, this is something that dragons teach their hatchlings when they were young." Toothless continued explaining. "Usually after their mind matured enough for it. Parents would first teach their children how to shield their mind from malicious dragons. They teach their children how to keep track of where they are, where to go, what time it is outside and how to share that knowledge with mind arts. After that, they allowed their children to experiment on their own."
"Dragons could freely enter other dragons' mind if it's not protected. If it's protected, the only way for us to enter is if they allowed us to." The dragoness lectured. "There are some exceptions; very few dragons were born with natural mind arts, and they usually have natural mental shield. We call them mind proficient species. Things like Bewilderbeast and Red Death species, they have them."
"Then, there's the Furies." Toothless lectured. "Night Furies, Light Furies – we're famous for our skill and prowess in mind arts. We can do a lot more than what normal dragons could do. We're far more than just natural in mind arts. That's why we don't usually submit ourselves to alpha dragons. Our minds are far more powerful than them, it was an insult to submit to lesser being such as them!"
"I… don't really know what to say." Charcoal admitted. That was new information to him.
"Never, ever in my life have I ever seen a Night Fury that ever submitted themselves to an alpha dragon, unless their alpha was a Night Fury themselves." Toothless explained to him. "Usually, Night Fury is the alpha dragon. I know a small flock of Light Fury with an alpha in Hidden World. Their alpha directly served my dad."
That surprised Charcoal. "Your dad is an alpha?"
"My dad is the Arch Alpha." Toothless informed him, shocking the male dragon. "He ruled over the whole Meridian of Misery."
Charcoal reeled in shock. "Your dad…" He trailed off, not knowing what to say. Arch Alpha had a higher hierarchy than Greater Alpha. While Greater Alpha ruled over a region, Arch Alpha ruled over the whole meridian. Typically, Greater Alpha served under Arch Alpha in dragon hierarchy.
"But that's beside the point. It's not important." Toothless insisted. "What's important is the fact that you don't know anything about mind arts. This is unacceptable. This is an insult to our species!"
The male dragon did not know what to say. Toothless was angry at the fact that he did not know anything about this subject. Charcoal wondered why Furious did not tell him anything about this.
Toothless calmed herself down. She looked at him with serious expression. "… Charcoal."
"Y- Yeah?"
"Let's make a trade." Toothless offered. "I'll teach you the basics of mind arts. You tell me everything you know about magic."
Charcoal blinked. It sounded like a good offer. However, he felt like something was lacking. It felt like something that he meant to know. It was like his inheritance. He wondered what other things that his father had been hiding from him. If it was something like his inheritance, he wanted to know everything about it. Toothless was the master of mind arts, and she was willing to teach him.
"… I have a better idea."
Toothless tilted her head. "Oh?"
"I call two owed favours." Charcoal declared. "I call the first one for you to teach me everything you know about mind arts."
Toothless reared back. She was shocked that he would call both favours for it. However, that made her wonder if he would ever teach her how to use magic.
"I call the second one for you to never tell anyone about what you see in my mind without my consent." Charcoal continued speaking. "Forever and ever."
"You…" Toothless was shocked. "You'd let me in your mind? All of them?"
"You're going to teach me something that I should've known a long time ago." The male informed her. "You're going to enter and see everything eventually. You can access my knowledge about magic yourself there."
Toothless thought that was a better deal. "But still, you don't really need to use the favours. I could teach you everything willingly, if that's the deal you want."
"I just wanted to make sure that I learned everything." Charcoal admitted. He looked somewhat guilty. "I'm sorry, Toothless."
Toothless was annoyed and confused. Was it really that important for him to use all two favours for them? She did not understand. Why would he do that?
It was then Toothless understood. Charcoal was a soldier. He sometimes unwilling to talk about what he had seen while serving the Dragon Rebellion. She had heard of dragons that came to Hidden World, telling tales about the horrors of the surface. No other dragon faced more horrors than soldiers of Dragon Rebellion.
War changes dragons. Those who served came back forever changed. It was a miracle that Charcoal was still sane after serving for 8 years! She wondered how it was possible. Charcoal looked normal, as if he had never served at all!
'Furious is the Greater Alpha. Possibly a Night Fury.' Toothless realised. 'It's most likely that he had been suppressing his memories to suppress the trauma. That's why he was never taught about mind arts. Furious is afraid that he might reverse the changes. He was afraid that the trauma would damage his mind.'
That made sense to her. Some Light Fury became therapists and mind healers to heal those who could not help themselves. Amber, for all her flaws, was a mind healer. Toothless had expertise on mental intrusion, fortitude and organisation, but healing damaged mind was beyond her, except for the basics and general advanced topics.
'I might need to bring him to Amber after we came to Hidden World.' Toothless grimaced. She shuddered at the thought of the perverted Light Fury. She most likely wanted him to breed her in exchange of it.
"I understand." The dragoness finally spoke. "So… when do you want to start?"
"I can't give you the exact time, but the next time I came back here, that's when I want to start." Charcoal answered. He looked grim. "I might need to ask my dad about this."
Before she could help herself, Toothless shouted. "No!"
Charcoal looked at her with surprise. The dragon sorceress fumbled. "I mean, no. Don't tell him yet. Let's keep this a secret. Charcoal, did you know the role of alpha dragon in this world?"
"… they're basically leaders, right?"
"Yes." Toothless nodded. "But there's also something else. Alpha dragons know mind arts. When a dragon served under an alpha, they have their mind bonded with their alpha. This allowed them to access each other's minds from extremely far away. At least, parts that they're allowed to."
"Other than being a leader, alpha dragons are mindscape hubs for dragons to share information and communicate with each other." The dragoness continued explaining. "Dragons can access information that their alpha made public in their mindscape. They can visit their mindscape and communicate with their alpha, or the alpha above them. They can also mentally communicate with other dragons through their alpha."
There was also other things, such as their alpha being able to listen in to what was being transmitted through them. It also ignored the fact that an alpha could access memories and thoughts of their bonded dragons. Typically, dragons would notice and block them, especially Fury species, but if the alpha was a master in mental intrusion, they could enter their mind and change their thought without them noticing.
If the alpha was skilled enough, they could force the dragon to bond with their mind without them knowing. That was something she had never seen before, outside few exceptional tales and stories about Night Furies.
Charcoal did not need to know about that, for now.
"You're most likely bonded with Furious." Toothless continued speaking. "That means, you can access his mindscape. Have your dad ever talked to you in your head?"
"He does that a lot." Charcoal nodded. "He also forced control on me when I went out of line."
"That." Toothless hesitantly explained. "Is exactly it. Instead of telling him now, why not give him a surprise? Learn the basics, and then, tell your dad about it."
Charcoal tilted his head. It sounded like a good idea. It would reduce the risk of his father disallowing him to learn mind arts. He would learn about it eventually, but it was best to know mind arts first before he barred him from learning it.
"Okay." Charcoal nodded. "I won't tell my dad."
"Great!" Toothless smiled brightly. She looked relieved.
Charcoal ruffled his wings. "So, uh… I'll see you tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow."
"Right." The dragoness responded. She was still happy. "I can't wait to dissect that mind of yours."
"And." Charcoal replied, getting himself ready to leave her cave. "I can't wait to learn from you. Duty calls. Have a good night, Toothless."
"You too."
It was early in the morning at Berk. Inside the Haddock house on the second floor, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was sleeping on the bed. There were papers strewn all over the place, filled with all sorts of notes and information – things that he learned during his time.
After some time, the boy slowly opened his eyes. He sat up on his bed and noticed that the window was open. That was normal. Leaning outside, there were Vikings walking and doing their own activities. That was also normal. Nothing was out of ordinary.
However, there was something wrong. Hiccup noticed that the Vikings were tense. Almost all Vikings passing by had both axes and swords on their belt. It looked like they were preparing for battle. It would not be surprising if Berk suddenly went to war. It did happen from time to time, and Hairy Hooligan Tribe had some blood feuds there and there.
Seeing that it was none of his concern, at least for now, the boy jumped off from the bed. He went out from his room and went down the stairs, heading to the living room.
The moment Hiccup walked into the living room, he noticed that Stoick had just entered the house. The door was still open behind him. He was wearing chief ceremonial outfit, which consisted of a long, green dress with a tight and large black belt around him. Notably, the man looked tired.
The chief noticed Hiccup walking down the stairs. "Hiccup."
"Dad?" The boy was curious. "What's going on? Why is everyone carrying sword outside?"
There was no reason for someone to carry swords when doing their activity. Typically, they carry axes around. Sword had no business when doing daily activities, unless they were practicing their swordsmanship.
Stoick straightened himself. "We're preparing to sign peace treaty with the Lava-Lout Tribe."
Hiccup remembered the Lava-Louts. The Hairy Hooligan Tribe and Lava-Lout Tribe had been at war for roughly a hundred years. It was just last year that they both decided for ceasefire. Both sides agreed that the war had been going on for so long. It seemed that it was time for them to make peace with each other.
"They will arrive in a few hours." Stoick rumbled, staring at his son. "Everyone need to prepare for the ceremony. That means you too, Hiccup."
"Okay." Hiccup nodded.
"I want you to stay with Gobber." The chief continued speaking. "Do not leave his side."
"I will." The boy nodded. He did not want to be the one kidnapped or poisoned by the Lava-Louts when something went awry.
"Good." Stoick nodded. Then, he lowered his voice. He looked pained when he spoke. "But if anything happens and you don't know where to go… run into the forest. You have Toothless on your side."
Hiccup widened his eyes. It was the first time his father ever mentioned her name. It felt strange that his father would trust him with a dragon. Then again, she had saved him few times before. "Okay dad."
With that, Stoick turned around and left the house. He closed the door behind him, leaving Hiccup alone inside.
Few hours later, Hiccup was standing at the harbour with Gobber. The harbour at Berk was right at the sea, hugging close to the tallest rocks that housed the Hairy Hooligan Tribe. The docks at the harbour were made of woods, and there was a ramp that went up to the village. There was also an open hangar on top of the harbour, which served as an auxiliary for things to move in and out of the harbour. Vikings called them loading dock.
There were other Vikings there. Hiccup and Gobber was standing at the corner, somewhat far from where they would dock. Stoick was waiting for the ships to dock at the front, along with other Berkian Vikings. Spitelout was standing next to him. Everyone was tense, as they waited for several ships to dock at their harbour. There were two longships and one kingship approaching them.
Once they docked at the harbour, six elderly men walked out from the kingship. Stoick was confused. He was expecting the chief to come out, not six elders wearing ceremonial outfit. He was not one to judge, however. He would have to welcome them, either way.
"Welcome to Berk." Stoick greeted them, getting their attention. He leaned to the side to see if there would be more coming out from the kingship. "… Where's the chief?"
"Ah." One of the elders spoke. His voice was silky and rough. "Our chief is busy integrating our new slaves into our tribe. We recently got them from our expedition to another island weeks ago."
Stoick knew what it meant. Lava-Louts had pillaged a tribe and turned them into their slaves. It was why Hairy Hooligans was at war with Lava-Louts – they tried to pillage their land for their knowledge and resource, but what they got was a hundred-year war instead. It seemed that they were still on their way to pillage other islands instead of them.
The other elder decided to speak. "We are here to represent our chief. I hope that's not a problem?"
"None at all." Stoick grumbled. "I hope we can come to an agreement."
The same elder looked around the harbour. His eyes fell upon the scrawny boy, Hiccup. The boy stared back. The elder had a strange gleam in his eyes as he bit his lips. Hiccup decided that he did not like this man. He noticed that the other elders seemed to be interested in him.
The elder looked back to Stoick. "Oh, I hope we do."
For some reason, Stoick had a feeling that the meeting would go wrong somehow.
The Great Hall was located at the top of the village. It was placed inside one of the rock formations at the island, with tall gates made of stone and two statues sitting on the sides. The placement was intentional, as the structure also served as a safe place for those who could not fight during battle, such as the young and the elderly. For someone to reach the Great Hall doors, they needed to climb long stairs made of stone from the village square, which was located at the centre of the village.
Stoick, Spitelout and the Lava-Lout elders were climbing up the stairs. Hooligan and Lava-Lout Vikings were wary of each other. Everyone kept their distance as they climbed up towards the Great Hall.
Hiccup and Gobber were following them at distance. They were climbing the stairs at the Berkian side, where there was a lot more of their Vikings around. The boy was feeling uncomfortable at the silence. He looked at the blacksmith. "Gobber?"
The man looked down to the boy. "Aye?"
"I've been wondering…" Hiccup spoke in low, hushed tone. "What does Lava-Lout Tribe do?"
Gobber grimaced at that question. "Ah." He muttered, making sure that they were not being overheard. "Lava-Louts lived in a volcanic island, right in the middle of lava flow. They make gold from lava there. 'one of the biggest and richest tribe in the whole archipelago."
Hiccup leaned closer to him. The blacksmith continued speaking. "They got a lot of slaves mining those for them. That's how they got rich. They were our biggest trade partner back then before the war. But then, they tried to pillage us, and we fought back."
The boy wondered what the Lava-Louts were thinking when they decided to betray their trade partner. Hairy Hooligan Tribe had a long policy of maintaining peace with other tribes. They did this by making other tribes somewhat reliant to them. Betraying the Hairy Hooligan Tribe meant that they would never be able to trade with them again.
It was interesting to know how different things worked when compared together. Vikings on Berk were fighters and fishers. They gained wealth by selling dragon parts, and majority of Vikings there eat fish and meat. Hairy Hooligan Tribe was the best dragon hunter tribe in Barbaric Archipelago. It should be noted that they were also the most progressive tribe in the whole archipelago.
Slavery had been abolished from the tribe years after its foundation. It was not good for them to have slaves, since there was always the possibility of them revolting and outnumbering them. Hiccup found it interesting that some tribes out there still practiced slavery.
After climbing up the stairs, Hiccup and Gobber finally reached the top. The rest had gone into the Great Hall. Deciding to follow others, the two Vikings went into the Great Hall.
The Great Hall was packed with activities. There were Vikings around the place, talking amongst each other. The Lava-Lout Vikings were somewhat segregated with the Hooligan Vikings, mostly out of courtesy. There were food stands around, serving the Vikings there. Hiccup and Gobber were standing close on one of the food stands.
Gobber leaned closer to it. The stand was serving pulverized frozen milk inside a bucket. The man looked at it with incredulous expression. "What in Thor's mangy tits did the cook do to that milk?"
"It… looks like an ice cream." Hiccup commented, looking down at the batch.
"Ice cream?" The blacksmith inquired.
The boy leaned closer to smell them. "It's crushed frozen milk." He spoke, surprised with himself. "… that's it. It taste better if mixed with honey."
"How did ye know that lad?"
"I read books." Hiccup answered, looking up to the blacksmith. "They have stuff about food from mainland. Ice cream is from the mainland."
"Hmm." Gobber stroked his beard, thinking. After some time, he shrugged. "Eh."
The blacksmith grabbed a tankard. He scooped up the ice cream and tasted it. The man smacked his lips, tasting the dessert. "… Mm. Not bad." He commented as he ate more ice cream from the tankard.
Hiccup noted that Gobber liked it. From the corner of his eyes, he noticed that a certain group of kids were eavesdropping through a door. The boy wondered what they were up to. It sounded important. Seeing that Gobber was busy with the ice cream, Hiccup carefully walked towards the Viking children of his age.
"Sssh." He heard Astrid hushed Snotlout. "Be quiet."
Hiccup narrowed his eyes. "What are you doing?"
That got their attention. Tuffnut answered his question. "We're listening in to the meeting." He paused, before continued speaking. "Wanna join?"
"Tuffnut!" Snotlout hissed. "Why did you do that?"
"Quiet!" Astrid hissed at the brawny boy. "We're listening."
Hiccup did not answer. He approached them and leaned onto the door. He heard his father talking with the Lava-Louts. He could make out what they were saying through the door.
The meeting room served as a place for chieftain to handle diplomatic relations. It was the place where two or more tribes talked their politics. The place was large and clean, with a large, long table that served as their place to conduct their business.
Stoick was sitting on one side, and Spitelout sat next to him. At the other side, there were the Lava-Lout elders. All six of them were sitting at the opposite side of the Berkians. There were papers and inks around the place. Those were drafts of the peace treaty and ceasefire extension. It seemed that they could not get an agreement as to what they wanted for the treaty.
Stoick looked down at the peace treaty in front of him. He frowned. "This treaty is unfair. You are asking for our Vikings in exchange of it."
"Oh, but it is fair." One of the Lava-Lout elders spoke. "After all, you're the one that want to end the war."
"If I remember." Spitelout growled, getting their attention. "Your Vikings were the ones begging for it."
Before it escalated, Stoick spoke. "I cannot sign this because it is unfair to us." He declared. He pushed the draft over to the elders.
A different elder pushed forward a different draft of peace treaty parchment. "How about this one?"
The Berkian chief grabbed and read the content. The man scowled. "This is worse than that!" He decided. "You're asking 2 of our Vikings on every annual peace treaty signing!"
"Well, you can always refuse, and we can go to war again." The elder nonchalantly spoke. "If that's what you want."
"You have yet told me what's wrong with my draft." Stoick reminded.
"We don't agree with your peace treaty." The other Lava-Lout elder explained. "You're simply asking for us to become trade partners again. The war had been going on for a hundred years. We want something out of it."
"Alternatively." One of the elder drawled as he pushed forward a different draft of peace treaty. "This might be acceptable for you."
Stoick grabbed the parchment. He read the content. "… you want a boy?"
"There's this… scrawny boy that I saw at the harbour." The elder smiled as he recalled his memory. "Thin, unruly hair, green tunics, standing next to… who was it, your blacksmith?"
Stoick narrowed his eyes. "You are asking for my son."
"Ah, so it is your son." The elder brightened. "I want him. If you give your son to us, we will agree with the peace treaty."
The chief remained emotionless. Inside, however, he was seething with anger. 'How dare he ask for my son?' He thought. 'Does he know that it was a great insult to ask for him?!'
"I will not trade my Vikings away for this peace treaty." Stoick declared.
"So, we're continuing the war."
"No." The chief shook his head. "We should extend the ceasefire until your chief come here. This is something that should be discussed with your chief, not represented by the elders of the village."
"Even if we extend them for our chief to come, he will say the same thing." One of the elder pointed out. "We want something out of it."
"I stand by my point." Stoick decided as he pushed forward a draft for ceasefire extension. "Peace treaty should be dealt between chief of the tribe. This is too important to be represented by the elders."
The elders grumbled under their breath. After some time, one of them decided. "Very well! We will sign the ceasefire extension."
Stoick nodded as the elder grabbed the parchment. Internally, he was seething. He might need to prepare the village for war. He would never trade his Vikings for the peace treaty. Especially Hiccup.
"Hah! Traded like a yak!"
Hiccup and the others had pulled back from eavesdropping them. The scrawny boy was in shock and disbelief. He could not believe that the Lava-Louts wanted him in exchange for the peace treaty. It was absurd for them that they wanted something out of the peace treaty. Don't they want to end the hundred-year war?
"I guess that fits you." Snotlout snidely remarked. "You know, being useless in the village."
"It might be something that you can be useful for once." Astrid commented.
"He'd probably trade you along with the Vikings." Ruffnut teased.
"Umm…" Fishlegs was hesitated. "Hiccup, you'd probably die in a week in their slavery."
Hiccup did not know what to say. He was upset at the fact that he was even considered. He was upset with how the others behaved. It reminded him for the reason why he did not like the children of his age. They were always mean to him for no reason at all!
The scrawny boy decided that was it. He turned around and walked away, going to the main room and heading out from the Great Hall.
While walking, he did not notice that Gobber went off to follow him from behind.
Later that afternoon, Hiccup was walking down the forest path. The boy wanted some time alone by himself. The forest was somewhat peaceful; birds chirping on the trees, small critters running around the place, and there was nothing disturbing him. It was the place he often went off to when he wanted some time alone.
The boy arrived at his destination. It was the clearing where he played Maces and Talons with his father together a year ago. The game board was still there, along with the table and bench. Hiccup often cleaned them to prevent rotting and Toothless often came there to play with him. His father rarely visited the place, so it became his sanctuary whenever he went to the forest.
Hiccup sat on one side of the bench. The boy let out a sigh. He pondered what he had heard few hours ago. It was unbelievable that they wanted Vikings in exchange for the peace treaty. It reminded him to the fact that some places around the world were more barbaric in terms of standards and traditions than others.
"Hiccup?"
The boy looked up. Gobber had come in from the forest path. He walked towards him. "Ye okay?"
"… no." Hiccup confessed. He did not want to lie to Gobber about the topic.
The blacksmith grimaced. He sat on the bench at the opposite side of the table. The man leaned towards the boy. "Ye wanted to talk about it?"
Hiccup looked down at the game board. "… I heard the chieftain meeting."
Gobber raised his eyebrow. "Ye listened in, eh?"
"The others heard it too." The boy shrugged, still staring down at the game board. "The Lava-Louts wanted something for the peace treaty. They wanted Vikings for them. They asked for me for the peace treaty."
Hiccup looked up to Gobber. "I'm scared." He confessed. His voice wavered. "I don't want to be a slave."
Gobber hardened his expression. "Stoick wouldn't let that happen, lad." He firmly spoke to him. "He care too much for ye. He won't trade any Vikings for that piece of paper."
"But then, the war will start again." The boy replied. "The war had gone for too long. No one is getting anything from this. They want to get something out of the peace treaty. Dad ended up signing ceasefire until their chief come here. The elder said that they'd say the same thing."
"Ye don't know anything about the Lava-Louts or their chief, lad." Gobber argued. "They'd talk about this. Ye won't be traded off."
"No!" Hiccup exclaimed. He looked at the blacksmith. "You don't understand. There's something with that elder. He looked at me like I'm sort of- a yak to be traded off! I just don't understand why he want me."
Gobber darkened his expression. He knew why. He had seen the elder looking at Hiccup. It was something that nobody should ever experience.
"You're not gonna be traded off." The blacksmith firmly spoke. "It's an insult, lad. They won't risk a war by askin' you to become their slave. Their chief won't allow it."
"Their chief will say the same thing."
"And how would ya know that?" Gobber argued.
"Because." Hiccup leaned closer, speaking in hushed tone. "I think the Lava-Lout chief is a puppet for the elders."
The blacksmith blinked. "Puppet?"
"Their chief is not really the one that make the decision in their village." Hiccup explained to him. "It's the elders. The elders tell the chief what to do and the chief will follow them without question. They're puppet to the elders."
Gobber found it absurd. "But… that's not how it worked!"
"Gobber, no tribe would delegate something this important to the elders." The boy explained to him. "The chief would come to deal with it. The chief can have their second-in-command deal with their new slaves. Why does it have to be the elders? Why can't they just postpone it until the chief have free time?"
The blacksmith had no answer to that. He simply stared at the boy.
"Those elders coming here means that they're the ones that's really in power." Hiccup argued. The boy was shaking as he explained his reasoning to the blacksmith. "Not their chief. This treaty is important. They wouldn't delegate something this important to someone else."
"Yer overthinking this, lad." Gobber commented.
"Gobber!"
Hiccup and Gobber turned to look at the source of the new voice. It was Spitelout. The man was running towards them from the forest path. "Spitelout? What are ye doing here?" The blacksmith asked.
Reaching them, the Berkian second-in-command took a deep breath. He looked at Gobber. "The Lava-Louts wanted a tour around the village." He explained. "And they're approaching the forge."
Realising the issue, Gobber stood from the bench. He looked at Hiccup. "Yer coming?"
"No." Hiccup shook his head. "I don't want to see them."
"Alright. Stay put." Gobber ordered. He looked at Spitelout. "Stay with him. Chief doesn't want him alone."
"Okay." Spitelout nodded.
With that, Gobber took off running to the village.
After the blacksmith left, Hiccup and Spitelout stared at each other. It was an awkward silence. They did not know what to say. Hiccup decided to break that silence. "Do you want to play?"
The Berkian second-in-command looked at the table. There was Maces and Talons game board on it. It did not seem to be a bad idea to play with him until Gobber came back. He knew how to play the game. He often played with Stoick back in the early days before the man became the chief.
"Aye." Spitelout replied as he sat on the opposite side of the table. "Let's play."
Gobber ran all the way back to the forge. The blacksmith quickly entered through the back door and opened the window. He saw the six Lava-Lout elder and Stoick standing there. They looked surprised to see him. It was most likely that they had been there for some time.
"Hello there!" Gobber jovially greeted them. "Yer here for the tour?"
"Yes." One of the elder nodded. "Let's see what you have."
"Uh…" The blacksmith fumbled around as he began rearranging the weapons. There was a table right in front of the window. "Most of us here use axes, warhammers and swords. We got standard stuff as well, like bola or hatchet."
"Alright." One of the elder dismissed him. "We've seen enough. Let's move on to the next one."
The elders began walking away. Stoick quickly came to the front and asked the blacksmith. "Where's Hiccup?"
"He's in the woods with Spitelout." Gobber answered.
Stoick was not sure to trust his son with his second-in-command. However, he could not leave the elders. "Alright." He responded. "You're coming with me. Help me with the tour."
"Aye."
Hiccup and Spitelout played the game for few hours. The man and the boy were focused on the game. It was the twentieth game of their session. Notably, the man looked frustrated. Hiccup seemed to be enjoying the game.
That was to be expected. Spitelout had yet won a single game against him. He was not even close to winning the game against him. The man thought that Hiccup was better than Stoick at Maces and Talons. Usually, he would win a few games out of twenty against the chief. He did not win at all against the boy.
He wondered if the chief held himself back when playing with him. He did not like imagining that.
"You're angry."
Spitelout looked up from the game board. Hiccup was staring at him with inquisitive look. "What?"
"You're angry." Hiccup repeated himself. "It makes you pick the wrong move. You need to be patient with this game."
The man blinked. He was frustrated and angry at the game. That one was obvious to him. However, what surprised him was the fact how Hiccup reminded him of Stoick when he pointed it out. The chief was smart, but also playful at times. There was also something twinkling in his eyes – something that he often see in Stoick when he was enjoying something.
Those characteristics reminded him of Stoick. Spitelout reminded himself that Hiccup was really Stoick's son. There was no denying it.
"Spitelout!"
Hiccup and Spitelout looked at the forest path next to them. It was a male Viking from the village. He looked tired. "What do ye need?" Spitelout asked.
"Spitelout." The Viking gasped his breath. "The cook! The kitchen! We're out of milk and the Lava-Louts are still touring!"
The Berkian second-in-command paled. He quickly stood from the bench. "Let's go! We need to get the farmers milk the yaks!"
The Viking nodded. With that said, the two men ran together through the forest path. They both left to the village, leaving Hiccup alone at the forest clearing, with the unfinished game of Maces and Talons.
Several minutes passed. Hiccup returned to the game. Looking at the board, the boy let out a sigh. Spitelout was competent playing the game on the first few matches, but he let his emotion influence his action halfway there. That made him incompetent.
It was real shame. Hiccup had been enjoying the game on the first few matches.
Hiccup suddenly heard flaps of wings. Toothless came and landed into the clearing. The boy brightened upon seeing her. "Toothless!"
"Hrr." The female dragon happily purred. She walked to the opposite side of the table. Upon reaching the place, she sat on her hindlegs. The dragoness looked at Hiccup with expectant look. It was obvious why she came there. She wanted to play Maces and Talons with him.
"I'll get it ready." Hiccup spoke as he began rearranging the game pieces. "… thanks for coming, by the way. I need a bit of distraction from my problems."
"Hrr?" Toothless tilted her head, curious.
"It's just…" Hiccup paused, before continued rearranging the pieces. "We have another tribe called Lava-Lout Tribe coming into our island. We've been at war with them for one hundred years. Last year, we signed a ceasefire. We're supposed to sign the peace treaty today, but…"
The black dragon tilted her head the other way. "Hrr."
Hiccup seemed to pause. After some time, the boy continued speaking. "They wanted something out of it." He explained to them. "They wanted our Vikings. Lava-Lout still practice slavery, so it's kind of obvious why they wanted our Vikings."
Toothless stayed silent. Hiccup continued speaking. "But then, one of them asked for me."
The black dragon reared in surprise. "Krr?!"
"I don't know why, but they want me as a slave." Hiccup muttered as he finished rearranging the pieces. The boy looked at the dragon. "Snotlout and others looks happy to know that. I just don't want to be a slave."
The black dragon growled, displeased at the fact that someone dared to enslave Hiccup. She did not like how his peers treated him either. "Krr…"
"Anyway." Hiccup started as he looked down at the Maces and Talons game board. "You're white piece. You go first."
Several hours later, Gobber and Stoick were standing over a cliff, overseeing the ocean. There were two longships and a kingship heading off from the island. After given the tour, the Lava-Louts decided to return to their island. They had promised that they would come back with their chief. The ceasefire had been extended for another year, since they could not reach any agreement when the representatives came.
While they were watching, Gobber decided to speak. "Ye know, Hiccup overheard yer meeting."
"Huh?" Stoick looked at him with surprise.
"Aye." The blacksmith grimly nodded. "He thought their chief would've told ye the same thing next year. He said their chief was a puppet."
"Puppet?"
"Those elders were the ones making the decision." Gobber continued speaking. "At least, that's what yer son told me. They wouldn't send anyone less important than the chief themselves for this sort of thing."
Stoick thought about it. It made sense to him. It did not change anything, however. His decision was firm. He would not be trading any of his Vikings. If the Lava-Louts insisted upon that deal, they might need to go to war again. That was not really a good idea, but there was never a good choice to begin with.
"STOICK!"
Stoick and Gobber turned around. Spitelout was running towards them. Upon reaching him, the man spoke. "Stoick! We're out of milk! The yaks aren't making any!"
"Johann will be coming in a week. Winter won't set in for some time." The chief rumbled as he stare at the man. "We're good, for now. Don't bother with the milk yet."
"Yes! I'll tell the cook." Spite responded, before taking off running into the village.
It was then Gobber noticed something. "Wait." He muttered. "If that's Spitelout, who's with Hiccup?"
The two Vikings looked at each other, horrified upon realising that fact. They both immediately took off running into the village, heading off into the forest.
Hiccup and Toothless had been playing for hours. They were at their fifth game on their session. The boy felt proud that the dragon was improving. She proved to be a formidable challenge in the game of Maces and Talons. There were times when she came close to defeating him.
"Hrr…" Toothless purred as she stared at her piece. The dragon tilted her head, before looking up to the boy. She looked like she wanted to tell him something. "Hrrm."
Hiccup looked up at the dragon, before looked down at the pieces. There were not that many pieces left, but he discovered something interesting. They had been repeating the same manoeuvre five times in a row. Their Viking Chief pieces were surrounded by each other's pieces, and they kept moving their pieces back and forth to prevent others gaining advantage. Notably, there was no Hunter pieces left anywhere.
"Huh." The boy blinked. "… it's a stalemate."
Toothless looked surprised. "Hrr?"
"It's a rare condition where there's no way for us to continue." Hiccup explained to her. "We keep moving back and forth several times already. Also, this is the 81st move of this game."
The dragon seemed to be confused by that conclusion. She simply stared at him, waiting for his explanation.
"They say that all checkmates are usually done less than 50 moves. Going beyond 50 move means stalemate." Hiccup explained to her. "It's an actual rule in competitive Maces and Talons game. It's there to stop people from playing indefinitely. There's also the 75-move rule, which is like 50-move rule."
Toothless looked at him with deadpan expression. It was new information to her. "Krr…"
"We're playing this casually." Hiccup continued speaking as he inspected the game board in front of them. "There's no rule like that in this match. I guess it's best to call it a draw."
Toothless huffed. She looked away, pouting for not winning against him. She was close, but it was not enough. Hiccup gave her an apologetic look. "It's better than losing. I didn't win, either."
The black dragon glanced at him, before looking further away. The boy let out a sigh. "Okay, I give up. You win."
Toothless looked at him with a smile. She gave him a toothless smile. Hiccup was happy to see her happy. The boy suddenly remembered why they were playing in the first place. His smile faded, which made Toothless curious.
"Sorry." Hiccup mumbled as he moved to rearrange the pieces. "I just remember the problem with Lava-Louts."
Toothless decided to stop playing. She stood from the ground and walked around the table. The dragon nudged the boy, displaying concern of his wellbeing. "Hrr…"
The boy stopped rearranging the pieces. He leaned onto the dragon, resting himself there. "I just… felt like my dad would trade me for the peace treaty."
Toothless widened her eyes in surprise. Hiccup continued speaking. "The war had been going on for a hundred years. I think of all the lives lost during the war. If there's no peace treaty, there could be another war. People will die. Nobody wants that."
The black dragon sat on her hindlegs. She grabbed the boy and pulled him into a hug. Toothless let out a long, loud purr as she held him into her embrace. "Hrr…"
Hiccup hugged the dragon back. He rested his body against her, feeling the warmth of her black scales. The boy was happy that the dragon really cared for him. "Having you here made me think." He mused. "What would it be like if humans and dragons were at peace together?"
Toothless snorted. She let go of him. Hiccup balanced himself, before looking up to the dragon. "It's just something to think about." The boy spoke as he shrugged his shoulder.
Suddenly, the dragon perked up. She stood on all four and lowered herself. Toothless nudged the boy, as if trying to get him onto her back. "Hrrmph. Hrr…"
"You want me to get on your back?" Hiccup asked.
Toothless nodded. The boy was confused. He wondered why she wanted him to get on her back. It was strange. Hiccup then remembered the times when he was in danger. The dragon was there to save him. It was most likely that there was a danger somewhere close by.
"O- Okay." Hiccup spoke as he climbed onto her back. The boy struggled a bit, and Toothless lowered herself even further. Once he was sitting on her neck, Toothless stood on all four. "Now what?'
"HICCUP!"
Toothless snarled at the direction of the forest path. "KRAAA!" She spread her wings, ready to take off.
Hiccup was shocked to see them there. "Toothless, wait!" That stopped Toothless from flying away, but she was ready to take off in a second. The boy realised that Stoick and Gobber were running towards them. They had their weapons ready.
Gobber was about to throw a bola until Stoick stopped him. "STOP!" He shouted. "Hiccup is on her back!"
Toothless bared her teeth. Her eyes were slitted. "Kraaaooo…" She hissed as she stalked to the side, moving to a more open area. The dragon looked angry to see them.
"Calm down, Toothless." Hiccup whispered as he pressed his chest down onto her neck. "It's just my dad and Gobber."
"Stoick, that's a Night Fury!" Gobber exclaimed, staring at the dragon with fear and awe.
"I know." Stoick spoke, not taking his eyes off from her. "Stay still. Don't move. She'd take off if we come any closer."
It came to a standstill. Gobber and Stoick had their axes ready. Toothless was angry; ready to fly away with Hiccup on her back. The boy was confused. The black dragon listened to him, but she looked like she wanted to take him away from them. Deciding that might be the case, he held the dragon tightly. He trusted Toothless.
"Hiccup." Stoick carefully spoke. "Get down from her."
Few seconds passed. There was no response. The father continued speaking. "If you don't get off her, she will take you away."
"Krr…" Toothless growled at them.
It was then Hiccup understood. Toothless did not want him to be traded for the peace treaty. It was most likely that he would become their slave if he was traded away. She most likely did not want that either. She wanted to take him away from the place, somewhere where he would not become the slave of Lava-Louts. However, at the same time, if she did take him away, he would be leaving Stoick and Gobber.
It was tempting to get down from her. However, he did not want to become a slave. Hiccup felt conflicted. He decided to stay put on her back.
"… Hiccup." Stoick carefully spoke once more. "How much have you heard about the meeting?"
"You signed ceasefire until next year instead of peace treaty." Hiccup answered.
That meant he heard everything. Stoick grimaced. "What do you think?"
"The war had been going on for one hundred years." The boy answered. His voice wavered. "You're going to trade me away. I don't want to."
"Oh, Hiccup." Stoick softly spoke. He lowered his axe. "Did you know why Hooligans and Lava-Louts were at war?"
"… they wanted to pillage our village?"
"Yes. And they wanted to enslave us." Stoick explained to him. "Our tribe is known for our fighters and dragon hunting skills. They wanted to enslave us because they knew how valuable we are to them. They wanted us because of what we can do."
"I declared that I will not trade any Vikings for the peace treaty. You included." Stoick declared.
"But the war was going on for one hundred years." Hiccup pointed out. "No one is getting anything out of it. Everyone wants peace."
Stoick ignored it. "When Hairy Hooligan Tribe was made, there are three things that the village must follow." He explained. "Unity, justice and freedom. We unite Vikings together through peace treaties and trade deals. We enact justice to those who wronged us and our allies. We bring freedom by fighting those that wanted to pillage us."
"The chief must uphold these values." The chief firmly spoke. "So does the chief before me and before them."
"But… what does it have to do with this?" Hiccup questioned.
"The peace treaty is important, but they are asking something against the values of our tribe." Stoick explained to the boy. "This is a matter of doing what was right and what was easy. It was easy to trade them away. But was it right to do that when it goes against what we stand for?"
Hiccup stayed silent. Stoick continued speaking. "I will not trade anyone from this village. No one."
"But… that means we're going to war again."
"We're Vikings. It's an occupational hazard." The chief replied. "If it's war they want, then it would be war. This is not the first time we were at war, nor it will be the last. The ceasefire would last until next year. We have time to prepare."
Hiccup stayed silent. Stoick wondered what his son was thinking about. After some time, the boy spoke. "Do you Viking Promise to never trade me away?"
Viking Promise was a simple honour promise. The chief understood the consequence of violating that. "Aye. I Viking Promise to never trade you away."
"… can I leave anytime I want?"
Stoick hitched his breath. "Leave?"
"If you break the promise."
The chief slumped his shoulder. The thought of his son leaving him on a dragon greatly saddened him. "Yes." He decided. "You can."
Hiccup slowly moved to get down from Toothless. However, she hopped to the side, preventing him from getting down. The Night Fury was glaring at Gobber, who had a bola still on his hand. The dragon was growling at him.
Stoick noticed the problem. "Gobber." He hissed. "Drop the bola."
Gobber did as he was told. Once the man dropped the bola, Toothless became relaxed. She lowered herself and allowed Hiccup to jumped off her. The boy slid down from the dragon and stood on the ground.
Once that was done, the dragon took a step back and flew away without a word, leaving Hiccup standing there.
Stoick quickly rushed to the boy. He quickly pulled him into a hug. "Hiccup." He whispered. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Hiccup slowly returned the hug. The boy and the father held their embrace, as the blacksmith watched them with awe and wonder.
Later that night, Gobber was standing outside the Haddock house. The man was waiting for the chief to come out. After the incident in the evening, Stoick had moved Hiccup into the house and spent more time with him. The blacksmith did not know what was being talked about, but he was told to wait outside the house until he came out.
After some time, the door flew open, revealing Stoick the Vast. The man walked out from the house and closed the door behind him. He approached the blacksmith and greeted him. "Gobber."
"How's Hiccup?"
"He's asleep." Stoick replied. He looked around and noticed that the village was empty. Everyone was asleep in their homes. "Come. Let's go to the Great Hall. We need to prepare for war."
The chief and the blacksmith began walking down the stone path. Haddock house was close to the village square. It did not take them long to reach the stairs that led to the Great Hall. The two men began climbing up the stairs, walking up to the Great Hall.
While walking, Gobber decided to speak. "That was a Night Fury…"
"Aye." Stoick nodded.
"It was just like her…"
"Don't go telling others about it." The chief grunted. "It'd put him in danger. She'd take him away if that happened."
"Have ye ever thought about trapping her?" Gobber whispered.
Stoick stopped climbing up the stairs. Gobber stopped as well. The chief was hesitant. After some time, he decided to speak. "How are we supposed to trap a smart dragon?" He questioned. "She knew our traps and knew when we were coming. Hiccup had been playing Maces and Talons with her. That's how smart she was."
Gobber blinked. "She could?"
"She can." Stoick corrected him. "It's been a year now."
The blacksmith was amazed. "How did she do it?"
"I don't know." The chief confessed. "Only Hiccup knows. But that's not the point. It's best not to try to capture her."
Gobber was confused. "Why not?"
"She's not the only Night Fury around." Stoick reminded him. "Remember the other one courting her. That one is far more dangerous. He'd raze the whole village to find her if we ever get a hold of her."
The blacksmith instantly paled at that reminder. The chief continued speaking. "You don't want a dragon hunting you down for attacking their partner." He warned. "Especially a Night Fury. 'best to leave them alone and keep it a secret."
Stoick began climbing up the stairs once more. Gobber followed from behind.
"Ye know." Gobber started. "Hiccup probably got scared when he saw the elder lookin' at him."
"Looking at him?"
"Aye. He didn't like how they're lookin' at him." The blacksmith nodded. He looked somewhat thoughtful. "Now that I think about it, there's no reason why they wanted him. They wanted some of our adult Vikings before, did they?"
Stoick darkened his expression. He was angry that the elder dared to have that sort of intention for his son. The man was not stupid. Lava-Louts were known for their use of slavery to mine their gold. It would not be surprising that they also practiced paedophilia. They do pillage other villages, after all.
The two men finally reached the top. There were two torches placed on the sides, illuminating the stone gate. Just before Stoick opened the door, he suddenly paled. He was frozen. The blacksmith did not know what triggered such reaction. "Stoick, ye okay?"
The chief looked at the blacksmith. He looked pale. "Gobber." He carefully spoke to him. "Do you remember what happened to Mildew's house a year ago?"
"Aye." Gobber nodded. "Night Fury struck his house. 'burned the whole forest while at it."
"Do you remember why?"
"You said they did it because…" Gobber trailed off. He realised something. "He put Hiccup in danger."
The blacksmith stared at the pale looking chief. Gobber paled upon realising what was being implied. Stoick leaned closer to him. "Keep an eye for news about the Lava-Louts." He whispered.
"… Aye, chief."
With that said, Stoick opened the door. The two men entered the Great Hall and closed the door behind them.
Charcoal landed at Furious' lair, Dragon Island. He looked around, before focusing on the giant, pitch black cave entrance where Furious would show himself. The alpha dragon had yet told him why he was summoned into the place. He wondered why he summoned him directly. He hoped it was not about his deal with Toothless few days ago.
Suddenly, a giant, slitted eyes appeared at the pitch-black cave entrance. It was Furious. "Charcoal."
"Hi dad." Charcoal greeted him.
"I have decided to give you more responsibility." The gigantic dragon spoke to him. "In preparation for you to become the next alpha of the Dragon Rebellion."
Charcoal tilted his head, curious. Furious continued speaking. "I am putting you on a trial for second-in-command position." He declared. "You will command our raiding parties when needed. You have higher authority over the raiding party leaders."
The black dragon was amazed. It was a huge responsibility. "Y- Yes, Alpha!" He shouted as he straightened himself.
"Now." Furious dilated his pupil as he stared at him. "It is time for you to gain the power of alpha dominance."
Charcoal did not know what it was. "Alpha dominance?"
"It is an incredible power to make dragons follow you." The massive dragon spoke to him. "No alpha Night Fury is perfect without the power of alpha dominance. No dragon will ever disobey your order, as you will become the most powerful of them all. Today, it will be awakened inside you."
Charcoal felt honoured. Furious wanted to awaken his alpha dominance. It sounded powerful. "T- Thanks a lot, dad."
The black dragon suddenly felt himself mind controlled. His pupils went completely slit, as he walked closer to the giant eye. Green, black and yellow large rocks were thrown out of the cave entrance. They landed in front of him. Charcoal looked down to the rocks. He recognised one of them from the books he read when he was awake. Those were Uranium; minerals used by Roman Empire to add yellow colour to ceramic glazes. He did not recognise the rest of them.
Had he been not mind controlled, he would wonder why it was brought to him. However, he was not to question his alpha. Charcoal bent and ate the rock. Instead of going into his stomach, he directed it into his furnace. The furnace was where his gas came from. The black dragon gagged a bit as the foreign object entered his furnace. Furious' control of him was tight, down to his instincts and reflexes.
Charcoal was forced to eat the rocks like a Gronckle. He felt his furnace filled full of those rocks. Once everything was eaten, Furious forced his mouth shut. He forced gas to envelop his throat, before igniting them with a spark. The ignition went through the throat all the way down into his furnace. The black dragon felt pain as the gas inside his furnace ignited at once.
Pain was everything that Charcoal felt. He was still under mind control, however. He could not do anything about it. The rocks inside him seemed to melt and disappeared. He felt his furnace burning, before finally melting all the rocks inside it. After some agony that he could not express, furnace finally stopped burning. There was no expression, as Furious kept his ironclad control of him during the process.
He felt something different with his furnace; it felt more potent and stronger. He felt like generating a lot of electric charges, which was unusual, since he was not old enough to generate them by himself. Those thoughts were wiped away as more rocks were thrown to his feet. Charcoal bent down to eat them, repeating the whole process.
Furious watched as Charcoal kept eating the rocks. He was pleased to see that Charcoal was becoming powerful. Those rocks were used to empower flames of Night Furies. It had been used for generations to make them more powerful. There were side effects, such as causing mutation to their body, but Furious knew that it would not affect Charcoal. He had all the benefits and none the negatives.
'Yes…' Furious purred as he watched the hypnotized black dragon in front of him. 'He would be powerful.'
Furious kept it up for hours, before Charcoal felt something stir inside his furnace. It suddenly grew extremely hot as every inch of his body heated up. Blue glow appeared on his appendages as his pupil began to dilate. His fin-like spines, nubs, throats and other appendages glowed with blue colour. The gigantic dragon felt his control breaking, in which he strengthened his mental leash.
They were both engaged in battle of will. Furious was elated to see Charcoal gaining alpha dominance. He was trying to break through the control, but Furious was unrelenting. More rocks thrown to his way as Charcoal was forced to eat more rocks. When that was done, however, something in Charcoal snapped.
The black dragon completely freed himself from the control. He let out a loud, long roar of defiance. "KRAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
The roar was so loud, everyone on Dragon Island heard it. Dragons straightened themselves as they felt alpha dominance brushed through their mind. Charcoal suddenly sensed everything around him with his mind. From dragons to fishes, everything flying, walking or swimming at Dragon Island. He sensed them. After some time, the glow faded from his appendages. He still felt them, nonetheless.
The black dragon felt pain racking his body. His furnace was so hot, he felt numb at how hot it was. He was not even sure how that was possible, since dragon furnace simply contained gas. Charcoal felt discomfort as his body held large electric charges, and it was still generating them. It was then Charcoal realised that Furious was not mind controlling him anymore. He somehow had broken through the control.
The Night Fury looked at the giant eye. It was staring at him with proud look. "The alpha dominance." Furious purred. "At such a young age. You are powerful, and you will become even more so when you're older."
The black dragon gathered his thoughts, before remembering what he made him do. "You made me eat rocks to get them?"
"Those were special kinds of rocks." Furious explained. "It was how you gain alpha dominance. Now…"
Charcoal suddenly felt pain in his head. He felt his body burning with pain. Furious mentally inflicted pain and obedience into him. Once that was done, the black dragon was gasping on the ground. He shakily stood from the ground and stared up to the greater alpha dragon in front of him.
"Remember who your alpha is." Furious whispered. There was dominance in his voice that demanded his obedience. "Do not disobey my order."
Charcoal shakily bowed to him. "Y- Yes, Alpha."
"Now go."
The black dragon did not wait for long. He took off into the air and out from the Dragon Island, fearing the wrath of Furious. His body was slowly recovering from the pain. That experience mentally exhausted him.
Toothless, to put it simply, was angry.
The dragon sorceress was resting at her nest, glaring at the wall in front of her. It had been a few days since she discovered that Hiccup was about to be enslaved by other tribes. It was outrageous to think that they would dare to enslave her Precious Thing. Toothless had allowed Hiccup to stay after they reached an agreement, but after some thought, the dragoness regretted that decision.
'Damn him.' Toothless cursed. 'I should've taken him away; drop him to different village. Why did I listen to him?!'
The dragoness was about to thought more about it when she felt something unfamiliar. Someone with alpha dominance had brushed her mind. Whoever it was, they were coming into the nest. The dragon sorceress quickly stood up and moved on a stance, ready to attack in case they were hostile.
To her surprise, Charcoal walked into her nest. He looked tired. "Hey, I'm here."
"… Charcoal?" Toothless spoke, incredulous.
"Yep. That's me." The male dragon gave her a toothless smile.
"Charcoal?" The dragoness repeated herself.
"It's me. Don't wear my name out."
"You have alpha dominance?" Toothless asked, shocked.
Charcoal blinked. "You can sense that?"
"Anyone with basic mind arts skill can sense you." Toothless explained to him. "You're basically a walking beacon right now; figuratively speaking. How in the world did you get that?"
Charcoal slumped his wings. "Furious awakened that in me." He admitted. "I'm on trial to become his second-in-command."
Toothless was stumped. Alpha dominance was an extraordinary power of mind arts. There was only one dragon she knew that had them, minus Charcoal. She was shocked to see Charcoal gained that power, and he was still 12-year-old!
'What is Furious trying to do with him?!'
"W- Well." Toothless nervously spoke. She sat down on her hindlegs. "Congratulations! Now that you have alpha dominance, you really, really need to learn about mind arts."
"Alright." Charcoal nodded as he rested himself on the ground. "Where do we start?"
"We start with the theories." Toothless started as she relaxed herself. "First; what is mind arts? It's a form of mental communication that we can do to exchange information. Two willing parties can enter each other's minds and read their memories. Alternatively, one can send information instead of letting them read their mind."
"Unfortunately, there's a caveat." The dragoness continued lecturing. "Because it's a mental connection between two parties, there's the risk of malicious dragons getting in. They can't change your mind, but they can read them. They could also change your thought or force control on your body."
Charcoal was beginning to get worried. He wondered if his mind had been breached before. It was a scary thought.
"This is where mental defence comes in. You protect your mind with mental shields." Toothless continued lecturing. "There are many different types and kinds of mental shields. Some were meant to keep intruders out. Some were meant to limit what dragons could see in your mind – you'll see a lot of these in mindscape hubs. They are as strong as your own mental strength. Each of them have their own design and flaws, but we'll get into that later."
The dragoness paused, before continued lecturing. "Now, I've told you what dragons can do with mindscape before, right?"
"You told me we can keep track of time and location." Charcoal hummed, remembering her explanation before.
"That's just one small part of what we can do with it." Toothless nodded. "Mindscape is where we communicate with each other. That's where all the mental interactions are done. Two dragons can access each other's mindscape as long they are close to one another. This is where they share information and knowledge or watch memories together. This is the mental communication between two consenting party."
Charcoal could see the benefits of it. That explained why Toothless asked for permission to enter his mindscape.
"But there's a problem." The dragoness lectured. "You need to be in close range with each other. There's also the mental strength needed to do anything. You're free to wander in their mind, but if you want to do something there, like talking to them, you need mental strength to do it. If you don't have enough, you'll just get a headache for trying."
"Is that why dragons speak instead of using mental communication?" The male dragon inquired.
"Yes. Traditionally, you don't want to connect with someone's mind unless you really need to." Toothless lectured him. "This lets you preserve your mental strength for something else."
"Wait, if it needs to be in close range, how can my dad talk in my mind from afar?" Charcoal asked, curious.
Toothless let out a smile. "That's because your mind is bonded with Furious."
"Bonded?"
"This relates to alpha dragons, which comes to my next point: misconception of alpha dragon." The dragoness focused onto the male black dragon. "What makes someone an alpha?"
Charcoal tilted his head. "… they lead a flock of dragons." He answered her question. "They have the ability to force control on dragons."
"Any dragon that have complete access to other dragon's mind can control them." Toothless explained to him. "It doesn't matter who or what kind of dragon they are. Any dragons can also lead other dragons just fine. So, what makes an alpha dragon?"
Charcoal blinked. "Uh…" He did not know the answer.
The dragoness leaned closer to him. "What makes someone an alpha is… nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Yes. Nothing. It's just title and schematics." Toothless nodded. She straightened herself, before continued speaking. "Anyone can become an alpha, but it takes someone with knowledge of mind arts to become an alpha. Anyone can turn their mind into mindscape hub, but only those with strong mind could become an alpha. The more dragons mentally bonded with you, the more it will put strain in your mind."
"The concept of alpha hierarchy we have today was invented a long time ago by the late Primordial Alpha dragon themselves." Toothless lectured. "There's Primordial Alpha at the very top, then there's Arch Alpha, Greater Alpha, and finally, normal alpha. They're just titles for our hierarchy."
"The only difference between them was their prowess in mind arts." The dragoness continued explaining. "A family of four dragons in one nest often mentally bond with the father. But does that make the father their alpha?"
"Hrr…" Charcoal tilted his head. "No?"
"Technically yes, but that's not the case." Toothless nodded. "You have dragons bonded with one another, and that dragon might be bonded with other dragons. This creates a hierarchy within, say, a nest or a flock. The dragon at the top of hierarchy is the one called an alpha dragon."
"So, dragons can bond with one another in a nest, but there's only one alpha." The male dragon assumed.
"Every nest that exist would have an alpha." The dragoness answered. "Some have kings or queens, but they're all the same position: alpha. Anything else, like Greater Alpha that nest alpha might be bonded with, are just matter of territory hierarchy."
"So, the hierarchy just depends on how strong their mind is?" Charcoal asked.
"Kind of." Toothless shrugged her wings. "You don't become Greater Alpha without a strong mind. Alpha in lower hierarchy can bond with dragons of higher hierarchy, simply because they have stronger mind. You don't want to be bonded with weaker mind. It drastically limit your benefits."
"But what exactly is mind bonding? How do dragons do it?" The male dragon asked, curious. "What does it do?"
"Mind bonding is a process where one dragon mentally connected themselves with another. The first dragon would submit to the second dragon, and the second dragon will accept the bond." Toothless answered his questions. "When you're bonded with them, your mind will become stronger. The stronger your alpha, the stronger your own mind gets by bonding with them. Strong mind makes strong mental shield."
"It also takes significantly less mental strength to communicate through bond. The amount of effort needed is usually fixed, depending on their mind." Toothless finished that part. "It allowed you to communicate at long range, thus erasing the need to be physically there."
Charcoal slowly nodded. "Is that why dragons bond themselves to an alpha?"
"That's one reason, yes." Toothless nodded. "Another benefit is that you can communicate with other dragons bonded with their alpha, or the greater alpha that they are servient with."
Toothless paused for a moment. "Let's take an example. If I'm bonded with an alpha, I can communicate with other dragons bonded with them." The dragoness continued lecturing. "If the alpha is servient with greater alpha, I can pass through their mind to reach dragons bonded with different alpha. You can go up and down in hierarchy. We call this Mind Hopping."
"Wait." Hiccup realised. "So, if you have an alpha right now, you can talk to dragons from Barbaric Archipelago to Hidden World by passing through minds of bonded dragons?"
"Basically. But we typically don't do direct mental communication that far." Toothless admitted. "The more you hop between minds, the more mental strength needed. We have another way to communicate that far – it's called Mail Chunk, but we'll get into that later."
"What about the range?" Hiccup questioned. "Bonded dragons should have range, right?"
"The mental strength of the alpha determines the range and number of dragons that they could be bonded with." Toothless lectured. "The process of mind bonding gets harder the more dragons they have. There's no mental effort needed to maintain a mind bond for either party, but there's still that mental effort needed to communicate at distance. While the mental effort required is very low and fixed, if you go too far, you simply wouldn't connect with your alpha."
Charcoal tilted his head. "What if they wanted to break the bond?"
"There are two ways for a mind bond to break." Toothless listed. "Either both parties agreed to break them, or either one of them wanted to break them. The first one is easy enough. The second one depends on how strong their mind is. You cannot break through control of someone that was mentally stronger than you, but the further you get from them, the easier for you to break them."
It was then Charcoal understood. He was shocked that Furious induced pain and obedience into his mind after defying him. The male dragon realised that his mind had become stronger after gaining alpha dominance, most likely equal to Furious. That explained why Furious did it to him. He was mentally equal when compared with Furious. He was reminded who his alpha was.
"If it's easier for dragons to communicate through mental bond, why doesn't all dragons do it?" The male dragon asked, curious. "Why are you not bonded to a dragon?"
"Because mental bond requires trust." Toothless answered the question. "When you're bonded with an alpha, they can bypass your mental shield and access your mind. You can protect your mind from tampering, but a skilled alpha could bypass your safeguard and protection."
Charcoal thought that makes sense. "What about… alpha dominance?" He carefully asked.
Toothless became nervous. "Alpha dominance is an extremely rare phenomenon. It's still a mystery, even to us Night Furies, mostly because nobody had them for thousands of years. The last one I know was the late Primordial Alpha itself. That dragon was a Blank Fury. Not Night Fury or Light Fury, but a Blank Fury. The original of our species."
Toothless paused, before continuing her lecture. "Normally, there's a range as to how far a dragon can bond or mentally communicate." She explained. "With alpha dominance, you don't need to be close or bonded to a dragon to enter their mind. The very concept of range or mental strength is non-existent to them. It's called alpha dominance because any dragons bonded with them could never defy their order, unless they have alpha dominance themselves."
Charcoal felt awed. He had something that no other dragon ever had. "So, I have this… sort of power in me?"
"Yes." Toothless nodded. She became serious. "You only get alpha dominance when your body and mind are extremely strong. So strong that no dragon could ever defy your will, even when not bonded with you. Rumours has it that they can enter minds of any creatures. They say that Primordial Alpha could even control humans with their mind."
The male dragon was shocked. That was an incredible power weighted on his wings. The mention of controlling humans made him glint, however. He wondered if Furious ever had alpha dominance. He remembered the inheritance that he was meant to have. The dragon wondered if it was something that Furious knew would happen.
Toothless saw his expression. She did not like it. However, she was bound to teach him because of the favour. "Now, it's just a legend." The dragoness continued her lecture. "It's most likely that your mind is fully synchronized with your body to get something like that. Mind arts can only affect other dragons. But… that's something to talk about later when we get to advanced topics."
Charcoal did not understand what she was talking about. He accepted her answer, as he would most likely not understand what was being talked about until learning the things before them.
However, something did not really sit well with him. "What exactly is mind arts?"
"Nobody have concrete explanation as to what mind art is exactly." Toothless stressed the last part. "Some theorists say it's magic, other says it's a form of mind power. Nobody knows the answer, and those theories were refuted already, so it doesn't matter. Everyone can do this since… forever. It's been like this since the dawn of dragons."
Charcoal slowly nodded, understanding the explanation. 'Well, that's another mystery that I have to keep wondering about.' He thought.
"Your mind controls everything in your body, even if you don't actively or knowingly do it." Toothless lectured. "Like breathing, swallowing, blinking, instincts – everything is in your mind. There's also other topics of mind arts, like muscle memory and others, things that rests deeper inside your mind. Everything in your body runs autonomously, whether you know mind arts or not."
"Wow…" Charcoal whispered, awed at the explanation. It was fascinating how his own mind worked. Then, he remembered something. "Wait. I don't know mind arts. Does that mean dragons have entered my mind before?"
Toothless let out a chuckle. "If you were another dragon, yeah. They would. But we're Night Furies!" She declared. She proudly spread her wings, showcasing her large wingspan. "We're natural with mind arts – the best mind proficient dragon there is! After we matured enough to have a mindscape, our mind will make a natural mental shield to protect us from intruders. Our mind are the most developed mind of all dragons that ever existed. Our mind gets stronger as we get older!"
Charcoal felt relieved. At least dragons were not reading his mind without him knowing. However, there was something he was curious about. "When do we usually get our mindscape?"
"It depends on every dragon." Toothless answered his question. She folded her wings back. "Hatchlings are immune and incapable of mind arts because their mind is not mature enough for a mindscape. Some species get them after a year, while others get them after three years. Night Furies get them 3 months after hatching, and we usually teach our children after they are 2 years old."
"Wait, why teach them after they're 2 years old?" Charcoal asked, confused. "Why not teach them right away?"
"It allowed their mind to mature more." Toothless patiently explained. "We don't want them to accidentally damage their own mind beyond repair. Unlike other dragons, we don't have to worry about malicious dragons invading our fledgeling's mind. They have natural shield protecting them. After two years, everything in their mind should settle. That's why we're teaching them after they turn 2 years old."
Charcoal understood. It was like a body. If they were fed a lot when they were a hatchling, they would become big later in their life. It was important for a dragon to be fed a lot during their hatchling and fledgeling age, so they would become bigger when they become an adult. That made sense to him.
"Now, that's the basic theory." Toothless started. "It's time for you to enter your mindscape."
The dragoness stood from the ground. She walked to him and laid down right in front of him. She snuggled her back close to his underbelly. The male dragon moved to pull the dragoness into him. When that was done, the two dragons were in hugging position, as if they were cuddling.
"Do we have to do this for every session?" Charcoal questioned as he looked down to her.
"The closer we are, the easier it gets." Toothless looked up to him. "Why, are you embarrassed?" She whispered as she pressed closer to him.
"No, it's just that…" The male dragon shifted uncomfortably. "Your rear is pressing on my… you know."
Toothless stayed silent. Charcoal wondered what she was thinking about. After some time, she spoke. "Even after courting me for a year, you still care about my consent. You're very kind, Charcoal. Never let anyone told you otherwise."
Charcoal did not know what to say. That was out of topic of the conversation.
"Anyway." Toothless muttered, still staring at him. "We need to set up your mindscape. For a crash course, everything and everyone doesn't have a form in your mindscape. Your imagination simply give them form to represent what it is in your mind. Visitors will see what you imagined. I should also remind you that it's not something that you'd be doing every day. We have means to automate things there."
Charcoal looked confused. Toothless rolled her eyes. "You'll see what I mean."
"Okay. What should I do?"
"Close your eyes and I will follow you into your mindscape." Toothless whispered. "Don't resist. Allow me to enter your mind, and I will pull you into your mindscape."
Charcoal closed his eyes. He felt something nudging at the back of his head. He did not resist the feeling. After some time, he felt drowsy, before finally falling asleep.
Charcoal stared at the vast, open space of nothingness. The sky was dark grey with hints of green and there were a lot of shimmering square cubes of various colours scattered around. Some of the cubes had grey colour on them, and some looked bent and chipped. There was something big, black, round and opaque floating somewhere far from him. It felt like it was holding something back.
Looking around the place, Charcoal realised that he was blue and translucent. He wondered if it was how everyone was represented inside a mindscape. He had yet asked Toothless what mindscape exactly was.
"You really should look into mind healers, Charcoal."
Charcoal turned his head to look at the source. He saw Toothless standing near one of the disfigured boxes. Like him, she was also blue and translucent. The dragoness was inspecting the box. "This doesn't look healthy. At least your mind is far more developed than mine."
The male dragon approached her. "Where are we? Is this my mindscape?"
Toothless looked at him. "Yes." She answered. "Welcome to your own mind."
Charcoal looked around the place once more. He noticed that there was a massive, massive green translucent dome that encompassed the whole place. It was what had given the sky green tint colour. "What is that?"
"That is your natural mental shield." Toothless answered. "It protects you from intruder. Impressive, isn't it?"
Charcoal felt proud of his own mind. The shield was big and imposing. The dragon remembered what was supposed to be asked. "I forgot to ask; what exactly is mindscape?"
"It's the bridge between your mind and the outside world." Toothless answered as she stared at him. "That's my own definition. Other dragons would simply say that it's your mind."
"So, what are these things?" Charcoal questioned as he approached one of the cubes.
"That's a Block. It's your memories, experience, and information that you know. Don't confuse them, since they're different things." Toothless explained to him. "When you went through something, say, found something interesting in an island, your mind will acknowledge that there is something interesting in that island. It first becomes a memory, and then extracted to become either experience or information. The result you see is here."
"Wow…" Charcoal breathed out. He touched one of the cubes. The dragon blinked; he suddenly knew that it contained information about the recent dragon raid that he had done. "So, all of this is what's inside my mind?"
"Basically." Toothless nodded. "You can even find your bond with Furious here. But let's focus on what exactly is happening here."
The male dragon straightened himself. The dragon sorceress explained to him. "Your mindscape represents your state of mind." She explained. "Right now, it's a mess, which is normal. When you don't organise your mindscape, it will become a mess as time passes. This is the natural state of your mind. Obviously, it doesn't seem normal, but that's just how it is."
"So, I just leave them as is?" Charcoal questioned.
"If you want to have easier time thinking, you have to organise them." Toothless nodded at him. "You just need to do it once. After that, you just need to maintain them. I usually maintained my mind once every week, and it usually took an hour or two after waking up."
Charcoal slowly nodded. He moved to reach for a disfigured cube. It had spots of grey and sickly green holes that looked like rot. The dragon touched it to get information from it. For some reason, there was no information. "What's wrong with this one?"
"Memories do expire from time to time, but they expire slower if you have your mind organised." Toothless explained. "Experience and information could expire too, but if you organise them, they will never expire in your mind. The green colour indicates that it's in process of rotting."
"So, this one is about to disappear?"
"Yes." The dragoness nodded.
Charcoal looked around for similar boxes. However, he noticed that some of them did not have black spots. "What about the black spots?"
"It's your mind's representation for things that had been tampered." Toothless explained to him. "If you can see them, you can reverse those changes. Since everything here looks to be tampered, safe to say, your mind is strong enough to keep track of all changes made in your mind."
Charcoal was shocked. "Someone was in my mind?" He asked. "How?"
"When you're bonded with a dragon, they can bypass your mental shield and enter your mindscape." Toothless reminded him. "It's impossible to manipulate or fake Blocks. You can only suppress them. In this case, these are the works of your dad."
Charcoal felt betrayed. However, he steeled himself. He needed to work on learning mind arts as soon as possible. "How can I reverse this?"
Toothless looked hesitated. "It's… best if we organise your mind first before moving to reverse the tampering." She explained to her. "Separate the ones that's still intact. Then, we can work on it. Don't worry about it for now. The memory should still be there."
"Okay." Charcoal nodded. The dragon began pushing the cubes around.
While Charcoal was busy, Toothless was busy doing something else. She was peeking into the memories and information to see what Charcoal knew. There were reports of dragon raids that he had done before, as well as some books that he had read. It was from there that she realised Charcoal really knew a lot about humans.
'Philosophy? Math? Physics?' Toothless thought incredulously. 'They are all tagged as human things. For someone that despised humans, he sure know a lot about their stuff.'
Something caught Toothless' attention. It was a memory that was nearly pitch black. There was no rot, meaning that it was intact. The colour indicated that it was trying to be suppressed by whoever intruded his mind. She wondered what that memory was all about.
The dragoness looked behind her. Charcoal was still busy organising them. Toothless looked back to the memory. She tapped her claws and it reverted to a healthy, white cube. The dragon sorceress heard a gasp behind him. She was surprised that he sensed it. It was then she realised that his mind suddenly had access to the suppressed memories.
"No." Charcoal was hyperventilating. "No, no, no, no, no. Please, no."
"Charcoal." Toothless ran towards him. "Are you okay?"
"I- I'm sorry. I-" Charcoal breathed out as tears poured out from his eyes. "I just suddenly remembered something. I…"
Toothless realised what she had done. The dragoness had reverted one of the traumatic memories that Charcoal had. "I- I'm sorry, Charcoal." She stuttered an apology. "I just restored one of your memories. I didn't realise it was…"
"No, no. I- It's fine." Charcoal forced a smile to her. He was calming himself down. "I- I'm over it. I'm over it. Yeah, that's it. I'm over it. I- I'll get back to organising the other stuff."
Toothless watched as Charcoal went back organising the boxes. The dragoness could not help her morbid curiosity. She realised that those memories were suppressed and tampered for a reason. The dragon sorceress walked back to the healthy, traumatic memory. Curious, she tapped her claws, accessing the memory.
'Oh.'
Toothless almost puked her stomach. It was the most horrifying, terrifying, foul and evil memory that she had ever seen. It was then she realised that Charcoal was telling the truth. His mother was killed and harvested right in front of him when he was a hatchling. That memory was evidence of this fact.
There was also other things in the memory. The ones harvesting them were slaves. That instantly reminded her of Hiccup. Toothless decided that it was best to keep the memories suppressed. Furious had done his best to suppress them. It was best left alone until they could get a mind healer for him.
'They say curiosity killed the cat.' Toothless bitterly thought. 'Satisfaction is not bringing that cat back.'
The dragoness tapped her claws as she suppressed that memory. The healthy white box turned into pitch black box, suppressing them from his mind. She wondered why Furious never brought Charcoal to mind healer. There must be a reason for it.
'I can't leave Charcoal alone. I need to bring him to a mind healer.' Toothless thought. She was instantly reminded of Amber. 'Screw her sex addiction. He could breed her all she wants. His mental state is more important than that!'
"Uhh… Toothless?"
"Y- Yeah?" Toothless quickly went to where Charcoal was.
The dragon was standing in front of a large, floating crystal object. It had a soft green translucent shield around it. Toothless hummed as she stopped next to him. "You found your mind. Congratulations!"
Charcoal spluttered. "W- What?"
"It's your mindscape's representation of your actual mind." Toothless explained to him. "That shield around it is the strongest natural shield your mind will ever have. No foreign dragon can tamper with it, unless they are mentally stronger than you."
"So… what can it do here?" Charcoal questioned.
"It's not the matter of what it can do here. It's what you can do with it here." Toothless lectured. "You can make a task for your mind to process, like keeping track of time. Or you can attach and run a Program to automate things in your mind and mindscape. You can do all sorts of things with it. I'll tell you the basics after you're done organising your mind."
"What about that one?" Charcoal pointed at the large, black floating sphere.
"That, I don't know." Toothless grimaced. "It's a shield protecting you from yourself. Most likely memories. It's best to leave them alone for now."
Toothless did not want to get anywhere close to it. If it really contained memories, it could mean that whatever it was, that memory was extremely strong and traumatic. It could not be suppressed by normal means. The dragoness was afraid of breaking them, as it might doom Charcoal as a dragon.
"And this one?"
The dragoness looked down. It was a blue floating triangle. "That's your connection with Furious. It's the entry point for you to communicate and enter his mindscape."
"Oh. That's nice." Charcoal nodded. It explained how Furious managed to communicate with him through telepathy.
"Red means that your connection is private. Green means public. Yellow means that it needs your consent to enter. Blue means private, but allow certain mental entity sent into your mind, like Chunks." Toothless explained. "When it's private, other dragons from Furious' mindscape could not hop into your mindscape. It's just between you and Furious."
Charcoal blinked. "Why would I want anyone else to enter my mindscape?"
"Normally, you don't." Toothless pointed out. "The only reason you want anyone to enter your mindscape is when your mind becomes a mindscape hub. If you want to do that, you have to make a mental shield to protect the stuff you don't want others to access. Have a public place where others can wander around, and then, move the entry point there."
"I see…" the male dragon nodded, understanding how it worked.
"That's… basically everything." Toothless responded, looking thoughtful. "We can guest Furious' mindscape later. There's other things you need to know about first. It's about how we pass information to one another."
Suddenly, a blue-green octagon cylinder appeared in front of them. It was small, but large enough for them to held on their paws. Toothless smiled as she looked at it. "This is a Chunk."
Charcoal moved to touch the Chunk. It contained a text that flashed inside his mind: Hello, Charcoal.
"A Chunk is basically a container for anything. They never expire." Toothless lectured. "Whether it contain information, memories or made-up things, like text, or recording of your thoughts and imagination. It's originally intended for long range communication, but dragons uses them for mental container nowadays."
"What's the benefit of sending Chunks instead of communicating straight away?"
"The benefit is the mental strength needed to do it." Toothless lectured. "With mental communication, you need a lot more effort to do it, especially if they are extremely far away. With Chunks, it's extremely little. It requires the same amount of effort to send them, no matter the size or range. Just fill it up with whatever you want – messages, memories, whatever, and then send it over to destination. We call these Mail Chunk."
"That's… useful." Charcoal muttered. He could see the benefits of that.
"There's a lot more that I wanted to tell you, but I don't have an example here." Toothless spoke to him. Then, she offered her paw. "I'm inviting you to my mindscape. I'll tell you how I do things there."
Charcoal sat on his hindlegs. "Okay." He touched her paw, before everything faded to black.
Toothless' mindscape was somewhat like Charcoal's mindscape. The colour scheme was identical, and the natural mental shield was there. However, her mindscape felt smaller. Everything was far more organised, however. It seemed like the definition of quality over quantity.
The cubes were sorted and separated by colours. They were floating and grouped up together. Each group had translucent, square blue shields protecting them. There were shelves filled with Chunks, stacked together like scrolls. Some of those shelves were protected with blue shields. The centre of the mindscape had the mind itself there, floating and slowly spinning. Everything looked organised and in order.
"Wow…" Charcoal breathed out, awed by the sight. "It's so clean!"
"Thank you." Toothless smiled at him. "I rarely get any visitors, so I never bothered with private and public space for my mindscape. This is everything I have. One day, after I teach you everything, your mindscape could be just like this."
Charcoal numbly nodded. He could not wait to have his mindscape organised like hers!
"I have a lot of examples of how to make different Chunks and Programs around here." Toothless smiled as she spread her wings a bit. "But first, we need to get you used to entering and leaving mindscape on your own…"
Furious was feeling irritable.
That was not a new feeling. The Greater Alpha dragon was somewhat quick-tempered when it comes to dragon raids. His dragons had reported that the Vikings had been equipping themselves with better equipment, such as ballista. It was unusual to have them have something like that, as they were often seen in Greater Archipelago, not Barbaric Archipelago.
It meant that dragon raids were failing. Vikings became more better equipped at killing dragons to defend their village. He had some dragons spied on the culprit of their equipment. He needed to everyone organised to tackle this problem. He would have Charcoal destroy the village responsible for their equipment.
'Speaking of.' Furious thought as he checked his own mindscape.
There were a lot of dragons visiting. Furious' mindscape was bright with yellow colour palette. That was expected, as he had divided the private section and the public ones. The dragons were wandering around the public section of the mindscape, talking and communicating with each other.
The public section had Chunk station for dragons to access freely. There were tables with regenerating Chunks for dragons to take; those were rules and regulations he had put in place for Barbaric Archipelago. It also contained the map of Barbaric Archipelago. There was also Chunk shelves, which contained mission briefings for those who wanted to participate in dragon raids. There was low activities there, since those were intended for dragons leading for dragon raids.
However, his focus was on two dragons that was in her mindscape. Charcoal and Toothless were wandering around the Chunk station. He was surprised to see them there. Toothless was not bonded with an alpha. It meant that she had entered his mindscape through Charcoal.
Furious swooped down and landed in front of them. "Charcoal."
"Dad!" Charcoal exclaimed, surprised to see him there. Furious was represented as a small eye with wings in the mindscape hub. It was interesting to see that representation of the greater alpha dragon.
"H- Hello, Alpha." Toothless nervously greeted him.
"Hmm." Furious hummed as he looked at them. "I see that your partner is teaching you mind arts."
"She is." Charcoal nodded. He sounded sad. "But dad, why didn't you teach me about mind arts before?"
Furious' pupil dilated. "Ah. I'm sorry, Charcoal." He softly spoke. "When you were young, I had hoped to teach you when you're 3-year-old. But then, you ran away to Merciless and served with him. I didn't get the chance to teach you."
"There's a lot of tampered and suppressed memories in my mind." Charcoal argued.
"Have you seen what's behind them?"
The male dragon looked away. "… yes."
"Then you know why I did what I had to do." Furious continued speaking. His voice was soft. "You had seen things, Charcoal. Things that no dragon should ever experience in their life. Yet, instead of stepping back, you pushed through and throw yourself further into the fray. Why?"
Charcoal did not answer. Furious waited for some time, before speaking. "You are the most stubborn dragon I've ever met, just like your mother. I have done my best to make sure that this war did not break your mind. This is why I did not teach you mind arts. You will be tempted to reverse them. I want you to understand that what I did is for your own good."
Furious turned to look at Toothless. "And you."
The dragoness gulped. The greater alpha dragon spoke to her. "I know who you are." She declared. "I know what you are capable of. If you hurt him in any way, I will bring the wrath of my dragons unto you, and everything you care about in Hidden World. Then, I will make sure you will become his slave and breeding stock, along with your Light Fury friend."
Charcoal snapped his head and looked at Furious with shock. He was horrified. "Dad!"
Toothless quickly nodded. She was terrified. "I understand!"
"Good." Furious nodded. He looked back to Charcoal. "I will allow this, for now. Learn well, Charcoal, and be careful with your own mind. I have given you access to my archives for training, in case you need it. Now pay attention! I will drop a Mail Chunk of your next assignment to your mindscape."
Charcoal paid attention. He felt something shifted inside his own mindscape. There was a Chunk dropped at the entry point of his connection with Furious. He could feel them. After that was done, the greater alpha dragon spoke. "This will be how I give you assignments from now on. Good luck, Charcoal."
With that, Furious flew away to elsewhere.
Charcoal turned to look at the pale Toothless. "Toothless, I'm so sorry."
"I- It's fine. I'm okay." Toothless breathed out. She did not realise that she was shaking under the pressure. "Your dad really care about you, Charcoal."
Charcoal looked away. "Yeah. I'm sure he is." He sounded bitter.
Toothless took a shuddering breath. "For the next one, I'll show you how to make a Program to sort Chunks." She continued her lecture as she calmed herself down. "The Chunk station here is a large-scale example of it. They handle incoming Chunks, and Chunks that's meant to be shared with other dragons…"
Charcoal's first lesson with Toothless took many hours. They spent all night going over the necessities and organising his mind, including how to control his alpha dominance – that part was learnt from Furious' archives in his mindscape hub. The male dragon was excited to finally know something that every dragon knew about, minus the alpha dominance. Toothless was mentally exhausted by the end of it.
At least Charcoal was not a walking beacon anymore.
As promised, Toothless gained access to the information about magic. She was not surprised that there was not much information there. There were basics of how to do magic, at least. Those were important information for her. She had copied them into her own mind. She could do her own self-study.
In the physical world, Charcoal and Toothless were cuddling together. They had been sleeping together while accessing their mindscape. After some time, the dragoness opened her eyes. She stared at the sleeping form of Charcoal. She let out a sad smile, concerned for Charcoal's wellbeing.
'Mind healer.' Toothless reminded herself. 'I need to get him a mind healer.'
Charcoal slowly opened his eyes. He smiled upon looking at her. "Good morning."
"Good morning." Toothless greeted him. She moved closer to him. "How's the first session?"
"I felt fine. I wanted to learn more." Charcoal responded, somewhat enthusiastic.
"Well." The dragoness let out a sigh. "You're mentally stronger than I am. I'm exhausted. We'll continue someday when you have the time again."
"Alright." Charcoal whispered.
The male dragon moved to release her, but Toothless tightened her grip. "Can we stay like this for an hour?" She mumbled. "Or do you really have to go now?"
Charcoal hesitated, before relenting. The male dragon wrapped her wings around her. "Let's stay like this for an hour."
Charcoal would be lying if he did not enjoy their position. Toothless was halfway under him on his left side. His foreleg was on top of her; their tails wrapped and tangled together. Charcoal found himself staring at her cute, exhausted face. It reminded him why he liked the dragoness under him.
'We'll be mates one day.' Charcoal promised. 'I'll spoil you with everything I have.'
Charcoal decided to do something else while Toothless was resting. He mentally checked the Chunk that Furious had sent him. It was his assignment for tomorrow; it was the briefing for the next dragon raid. He did not have the chance to check them since he was learning mind arts with Toothless before.
Checking the Chunk, the next dragon raid was Lava-Lout Tribe. Charcoal was specifically ordered to destroy the whole tribe. There were multiple short addendums referring to reports of dragon raids from before; it linked them to other tribes having better equipment to fight dragons. The Lava-Lout Tribe was responsible for their new equipment, and they needed to be destroyed.
There was a note there that the Lava-Louts was getting close to finding Dragon Island through Helheim's Gate.
"That's new." Charcoal commented.
Toothless stirred under him. "What's new?"
"I just checked my next assignment." Charcoal informed her. "I'm ordered to destroy a Viking tribe."
"What's it about?"
"The tribe is responsible for making and selling new equipment for tribes around Barbaric Archipelago." Charcoal explained. "They're also getting close to Dragon island. It's going to start tomorrow at Lava-Lout Island."
Toothless froze upon hearing that name. "Lava-Louts?"
"Yeah." Charcoal responded. "That's the name of the island and the tribe."
Toothless thought about what she had learned. Charcoal being ordered to destroy the Lava-Louts was a coincidence too big to pass up. She could join the dragon raid and kill the certain Vikings there. Her Precious Thing would be safe from them. However, it meant that she would have to join him in Dragon Rebellion, the very thing that she did not want to do.
Toothless reminded herself that she was there to pull him out of the Dragon Rebellion, not joining along with him. She then remembered that memory of his mother murdered and harvested right in front of him. She remembered the slaves being whipped and forced to harvest them. The dragoness remembered Hiccup and imagined him being tortured and forced to harvest a Night Fury.
'I will not allow it.' Toothless finally decided. 'I'm sorry dad, Amber, but I've made my choice.'
"Can I join you?" Toothless asked.
Charcoal blinked. He had accepted the fact that Toothless did not want to join the Dragon Rebellion. It was unusual for her to suddenly wanted to join. "Sure, but… why now?"
Toothless considered on telling him why, It was best to tell him about it. They were going to be mates. They might as well share their secret. "I have… a Precious Thing." She hesitantly explained.
"… Okay?"
"My Precious Thing lives at Berk." Toothless confessed. "He's a human Viking. His name is Hiccup."
Charcoal froze. He stared at her with shock. The dragoness continued speaking. "He's not like other Vikings!" Toothless hastily explained. "He's so small and can't really help himself. I- I just wanted to keep him safe…"
"… Okay."
"Okay?" Toothless questioned, incredulous. "That's it?"
"I'm not going to judge you for having a human pet." Charcoal assured her. "Trust me, it's not the most ridiculous thing. Have I told you that some dragons at Greater Archipelago kept eels as their pet? They call them their Precious Thing."
Toothless looked at him with disgusted expression. "Dragons do that there?"
"Yup. I tried to have one too, but then I realised that there's no point on keeping an eel as a pet." Charcoal shuddered, before focusing on the topic. "But that doesn't explain why you want to join Dragon Rebellion. I thought you don't like that."
Toothless took a deep breath. Her pupils fully dilated. "Few days ago, I came to visit him. We were playing Maces and Talons together. Then, he brought up this topic where the Lava-Louts came to his tribe. His tribe had been at war for a hundred years."
Charcoal nodded but did not say anything. He did kept track of human activities from time to time, and that includes their relation.
"One of the Lava-Lout human asked for my Precious Thing for their peace." Toothless explained as she looked down to his scales. "Hiccup didn't like that. I don't want him to be a slave, either. His dad doesn't want that either. They ended up signing agreement not to attack each other for a year, but that doesn't mean peace. I tried to take Hiccup away, but he doesn't want to leave…"
Then, the dragoness looked at him. "That's why I want to join." She confessed. "If I can't take him away, then I just have to kill the ones that wanted to hurt him."
Charcoal stayed silent, but his expression was dark. Toothless looked away from him. "I'm… probably not that good or smart about humans. I'm not really much of a fighter for the Dragon Rebellion-"
"It's okay. You don't have to be a fighter to join. That can be arranged." Charcoal interrupted him. "I just wanted to make sure that this is what you wanted. Are you sure you wanted to join the Dragon Rebellion?"
Toothless stared at the male dragon with determined expression. "Yes."
"Just to kill those Vikings?"
Toothless looked hesitated. "I don't know which Viking they are, but I know they're Lava-Louts."
"Then we'll just have to kill them all." Charcoal explained, surprising her. "Lava-Lout Tribe lives right in the middle of volcano lava flow. It won't be that hard to take them all out."
"… Okay." Toothless whispered. "I trust you."
"Just to make sure." Charcoal started. "You wanted to join the Dragon Rebellion?"
"Oh, for the last time- Yes!" Toothless exclaimed. She glared at him. "Don't treat me like I'm some sort of fragile hatchling that needs to be coddled."
Charcoal stayed silent. Toothless wondered what he was thinking about. The male dragon decided to speak. "Do you want to submit to Furious?"
"No." Toothless shook her head. "I'm submitting to you."
The male dragon blinked. "What?"
"You heard me." Toothless spoke as she released herself from him. The dragoness stood on the ground in front of him. "You're the first Night Fury I've ever seen with alpha dominance. I'd be an idiot to submit myself to someone lesser than you."
Charcoal stood from the ground. "Okay. I uh… I'll do my best as your alpha then."
"Good."
The male dragon focused himself. His appendages began to glow blue. Toothless bowed down to him as she allowed him entered her mind. Charcoal held onto her mind and pulled her into him. The dragon sorceress felt herself bound into him, as his alpha dominance subconsciously worked into her mind.
The stronger mind compelled her to obey his orders. His mental dominance was unrelenting, and it demanded her complete submission. It also empowered her mind, as Charcoal was mentally stronger than her. She felt her mind empowered by tenfold.
After that was done, the two dragons looked at each other. The blue glow from his appendages slowly faded away. Charcoal looked concerned. "How do you feel?"
"I feel… protected." Toothless breathed out. She looked at him with a smile. "There's nothing I wouldn't do for you… Alpha."
Charcoal looked uncomfortable. "Can you call my name instead? I'm not exactly comfortable having dragons calling me that."
Toothless felt his will commanding her. The control was strong. She could not disobey him. It demanded her truthful answer. "Okay. I'll call you by your name." She nodded. "Do I have to join all dragon raids that you participated in?"
"Uh… If you want." Charcoal responded. "I don't want to force you."
Toothless knew she had sealed her fate. The moment she submitted herself to him, it meant she would become his dragon. Even after she wilfully bonded with him, he still asked for her consent. He did not force it unto her. She decided that he deserved her unwavering loyalty.
"Then." The dragoness steeled herself. "I want to join all of them."
"Okay, if you insist."
The dragon raid started at midnight.
The two Night Furies were flying up high above the Lava-Lout Island. They were scouting the place for information to take out as much Vikings as possible. The raiding party was waiting for their signal. Everyone was plotting on how to destroy the village with as few dragon casualties as possible.
The Lava-Lout Tribe lived in the middle of a volcanic lava flow. They were protected by a large lava gate made of stone and metal. It split the flow and protected their village from the burning, hot lava. At the barrier, there were several contraptions, which they assumed was used to obtain gold from the lava. There were some stacks of gold there at the centre, including a large chest, presumably filled with gold.
Other than the barrier, the village itself seemed mediocre. The houses were made of wood, including the Great Hall. There was nothing there that was made of stone. There were weapons around the village, such as ballista and others, but they seemed to be under construction. Charcoal thought that it would be their downfall. They were so greedy and confident that they most likely sold all their available weapons to other villages.
"Toothless, do you see that gate?" Charcoal spoke through telepathy.
Toothless looked at where he was referring to. "Yeah, I see them."
"The gate have four latches that they use to lock them in place." Charcoal explained the mechanism to her. "They are dragon proof metal, but I have something that can take it out. I need you to make sure that the Vikings don't try to fix them when I started blowing them up."
"Okay." Toothless responded. That made sense to her.
"Let's signal the others. You take out the catapult."
"Right!" Toothless mentally shouted. Both Charcoal and Toothless snapped their wings. They dove down towards their targets.
Loud, piercing shrieks filled the air around them as the two Night Furies dove to two separate targets. "KRAAAAA!" BOOM!
Charcoal dove down to the forge and fired a plasma blast. Instead of the usual blue colour, the plasma blast was white with blue outline. The explosion rocked the whole village as the forge was blown into smithereens. The male dragon quickly flew to the side, slowly climbing to altitude for the real reason why he was there.
Dragons swarmed into the place. Looking to the side, Charcoal noticed that Toothless had blown up the largest catapults. She was flying to the opposite direction of him. The dragoness was also slowly climbing up to altitude. However, his focus was not the dragons. He was more focused on the destruction that he had caused.
'I did that?' Charcoal thought, amazed.
What was once the forge was left with only a large, smoking crater. When gaining alpha dominance, Furious had fed him something that made his fire burn hotter. This, in turn, made his plasma blast significantly more powerful. He had yet checked his flame after his ascension. It seemed that he had become far more powerful than before.
Vikings poured out from their homes, holding up their swords and axes. They rushed to defend their homes from the dragon invaders. The raiding party ignored the food they had and charged to attack the Vikings. They knew that these Vikings were responsible for the equipment that other villages had, and they wanted revenge for what they had done.
"Okay!" Charcoal sent his thoughts to Toothless. "The Vikings should be busy with the raiding dragons. We need to work quick on this one."
"Go on ahead. I'll take out the Vikings!" Toothless sent back. Charcoal could feel scorn in her voice. She was angry at those Vikings.
Charcoal and Toothless were flying high in the sky. the male dragon looked down onto the lava dam that the Lava-Louts had built to protect their village. The four latches were huge, which meant he would need to blow them up to collapse the dam. Acknowledging the plan, Charcoal flew a bit higher, before diving down to one of the latches on the top left side.
Loud, piercing shriek filled the air, as Charcoal charged a full powered plasma blast with lightning infused in it. "KRAAA!" BOOM!
The explosion was so big, it shattered the whole latch into pieces. Metal shrapnel went flying all over the place, destroying houses and all sorts of things down at the village. Dragons and Vikings had to dodge them, and even then, there were few that were hit. The Vikings were horrified to see the latch destroyed, as having all four of them break meant the end of their village.
Charcoal went climbing back up. As he did, Toothless was in shock. "What in the name of skies was that?!"
"This is what my dad had done to me." Charcoal darkly informed her. Toothless did not respond to that statement.
Charcoal climbed up high into the sky. After reaching certain altitude, he dove down to the latch on the top right side. The piercing shriek alerted everyone that he was diving to attack. He focused on to strike that latch.
"NIGHT FURY!"
"GET DOWN!"
"KRAAA!" BOOM!
Massive explosion rocked the whole dam. It shattered the second latch. It was then the Vikings realised that the Night Fury was trying to destroy the whole village. They had built their village in the middle of lava flow, and they were paying the price for it!
"Two more." Charcoal informed Toothless. "I see one trying to put a latch on the first one. Stop them."
Toothless felt the command. She was compelled to obey. "Yes, Charcoal!" She replied. The dragoness spotted where he was referring to. Several Vikings were hoisting a massive latch. They were trying to replace the one that had been shattered. The dragoness dove down towards them.
The dragoness let out a loud, piercing shriek as she build the plasma blast. "KRAAAAA!" BOOM!
The explosion rocked the latch. It did not destroy them, but the shockwave had crushed the Vikings carrying them. Toothless flew away from the area and began climbing up to altitude. The dragoness grimaced as she looked back. There were blood pooling from underneath the fallen latch. The object was so heavy, it took more than ten of them to carry it. The Vikings were crushed underneath the weight and shockwave of her blast.
"KRAAAA!" BOOM!
Toothless looked at the lava dam. Charcoal had blown up another latch. This time, it was on the lower left side of the dam. She heard the whole structure creaking, but it was not enough to topple the whole dam.
Charcoal noticed that the Vikings were heading off to their harbour. They were trying to run away. "Toothless, burn their ship sails."
Toothless obeyed. She glide down towards the harbour and flew to the ships. There were five longships docked there. The dragoness opened fire on one of the ships. "Kra!" BOOM!
One of the ships had their sail blown off. Vikings quickly vacated back into the docks, as the whole ship started to burn down. Toothless kept on flying and firing plasma blasts to their sails. Charcoal did not want anyone escaping. Toothless did not want them escaping, either.
They wanted to kill all of them in one dragon raid.
After passing over the harbour, Toothless looked back to see her handiwork. The Vikings were running back to the docks as their longships were burning down. It was the best-case scenario for dragons. Looking over the place, raiding dragons were busy wracking havoc at their harbour and housing sectors. It made her wonder why they did not communicate with the raiding dragons down below.
"KRAAA!" BOOM!
Toothless heard the last latch blown up. The dragoness winced as she heard a loud scratching noise coming from the lava dam. It was about to collapse!
KREEEEEEEEEE!
The lava gate opened, and lava began to pour into the village. However, after some pathways, the gate stopped moving. Vikings quickly rushed to stop the lava flow. They began digging down lava path for them to flow. Toothless wondered why it did not open all the way through.
"Charcoal?" Toothless called out. "What's going on?"
Charcoal was flying over the dam on the lava side. He seemed to be inspecting them. "Some of the lava had cooled down. It crusted and hardened into rocks." He explained. "It's holding up the gate. We can't destroy them, since it's literally inside the lava."
Toothless did not understand some of the technicalities. However, she understood that something went wrong, and they could not do anything about it. "What now?"
Charcoal thought about the solutions. Dragons were busy preventing the Vikings from running away from the docks. Their time was running out. He knew that they would eventually get out of the island if they did not act fast on destroying the whole place. Everything was left to him to think for the solution.
The male dragon looked at the volcano. It was obviously an active volcano. He remembered the things that he read when he was awake. Lava came from underneath the world itself, and active volcanoes were connected to them. At least, that was what the Alexandria scholars theorised. Far underneath the ground, there was nothing but lava.
At least, that was what they thought. Lava do harden and became crust of rocks. It formed and bordered lava flow around the world, thus creating pockets of lava deep under the surface. Scholars called the walls tectonic plates. Each of those pockets of lava have different levels of pressure. Active volcanoes were responsible for expelling excess lava pressure from the pocket, thus stabilising the pocket of lava underneath.
'What if I destroy the tectonic plate?' Charcoal pondered.
Scholars theorised that earthquake was caused by shifting tectonic plates. Charcoal theorized that rupturing the tectonic plate underneath an active volcano could possibly cause an earthquake and the volcano erupting. He decided that it was best to test those theories, considering that there was nothing else they could do. The only other option would be blowing the Vikings one by one, and that takes time. It was best to take out the whole island instead.
There was one problem, however. Charcoal was not sure how to rupture the tectonic plate underneath the active volcano. He could fire plasma blast at long range, but he was not quite sure if it was possible to have them go through lava. He was not even sure how far the surface and tectonic plate was. If anything, he was not sure that it was even possible.
However, if there was one thing that he knew about dreaming, anything was possible. He needed to make sure of something first, however. "Toothless, does lava trigger our plasma blast?"
"Depends, but generally, yes." Toothless answered. "If the plasma blast is hotter than the lava, it won't trigger them until it hit a solid surface."
That was all the answer he needed. Charcoal reached the top of the active volcano, before flying as high up as possible. The male dragon narrowed his eyes as he aimed to hit his height ceiling. Once he reached them, he turned around and dove down towards the active volcano. He used everything he had to rupture the tectonic plate underneath the active volcano.
Toothless was flying around when she noticed what Charcoal was doing. The male dragon had gone supersonic in a dive from extremely sharp angle, down into the volcano. After reaching certain range, Charcoal fired the hottest plasma blast he could make. The hot, white ultraviolet plasma ball went right into the volcano. The plasma ball went down and swallowed into the lava. The male black dragon quickly pulled up and flew away from the area.
Charcoal used the remaining speed and energy to glide up high into the air. Upon reaching certain altitude, he levelled and moved to fly alongside the dragon sorceress. Toothless was staring at him, curious as to what he had done. "What did you do?"
"It's a theory that humans came up with. I just improvised them." Charcoal explained to her. "I wanted to see if it's true."
"We're meant to kill everyone and you're theorising things?" Toothless asked, incredulous.
"We don't have anything to lose at this point." Charcoal shrugged.
The two dragons waited. Five minutes passed, nothing happened. Another five minutes passed, still nothing happened. The raiding party was beginning to fly away. They had done everything to prevent the Vikings from escaping the island. Toothless began to wonder about Charcoal's sanity and hypocrisy about human in general.
Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake. Everything on the island began to shake. It threw everyone on the ground out of balance. Structures, buildings and trees collapsed under the shake. It was the biggest earthquake that anyone had ever felt.
"Skies above, look at the volcano!"
Charcoal looked up to see what Toothless was looking at. The two were in disbelief that the volcano was beginning to erupt. Ridges on the top of the volcano began to crumble as lava began pouring out from underneath. It flooded everything around it, heading down from the top to bottom.
"HAHA! YES!" Charcoal roared, happy at his accomplishment. "I was right!" However, upon seeing the huge eruption that was about to happen, his smile faded a bit. "Maybe a little bit too right…"
BOOOOOOMMMMM!
The volcano quite literally exploded with a deafening bang. Massive amount of lava erupted out from the volcano. It was the biggest eruption that they had ever seen. The lava went up high beyond the clouds, and then came down raining into the island and waters beyond. Dragons and Vikings alike were horrified. The earthquake was still happening, meaning that everyone was struggling to run away from the place.
"Okay, time to go!" Charcoal shouted as they began flying away.
Toothless followed, but she was gawking at the sight. She was quite sure that everyone on Meridian of Misery felt the earthquake and heard the eruption. Upon seeing what was happening, dragons immediately evacuated from the place. The dragoness suddenly had an idea. She needed to give something for her Precious Thing.
The dragoness spotted a pile of gold at the centre of the village. There was a massive chest there, assuming that was where they kept their gold. It conveniently had four handlebars on each side. Toothless silently dove and snagged the chest off the ground. She struggled a bit, most likely because it weights roughly several metric tons, but she was satisfied. Toothless continued to fly next to Charcoal. She noticed that lava had consumed the place where the chest had been before.
Not long after, the whole island was covered with hot lava. It was safe to say that everyone that could not fly died from lava. Charcoal noticed that Toothless was carrying a large chest underneath her. He did not say anything. He assumed that she would be bringing that to her Precious Thing. It was her spoils of war, after all.
The dragoness was still amazed at what Charcoal had done. She was horrified to see the destruction of an island in one swoop. However, deep inside, she relished and satisfied at what was done. Those who tried to attack Hiccup would suffer, and she wanted him to know what she had done for him.
'No one should ever hurt him.' Toothless internally snarled. 'No one.'
Toothless glanced to the dragon that was courting her. He had agreed to destroy and kill everyone at the village. He had gone up and beyond for her, going as far as to destroy the whole island. That made her wonder.
If Charcoal went as far as destroying an island to protect her Precious Thing, how far would he go to protect her and their hatchlings?
Toothless was correct on her assumption that everyone on Meridian of Misery felt the earthquake and heard the eruption. Stoick was sleeping on the chair at the living room in his house when he felt the earthquake. "What the-"
There was an explosion. It sounded like it came from afar. it was a phenomenon that he recognised. There was a huge volcanic eruption somewhere. The man held onto his chair as he waited for the earthquake to stop. Some furniture toppled and crashed to the ground. Once that happened, he went out of the house.
Every Viking had gone out from their houses. There was some structural damage there and there, but nothing that they could not fix. Stoick noticed that Spitelout was running towards him. "Chief! Earthquake!"
"I know." Stoick responded. "I need you to check the docks and see if there's any damage. Look out to the ocean in case we have tsunami coming in. I'll check the damage on the village."
"Aye, chief!" Spitelout nodded, before taking off running elsewhere.
The chief looked around the place. He was about to walk down to the housing area when he heard something from the house. The man looked back. There was nothing there. He noticed that the window from Hiccup's room was open. He decided it was best to check on Hiccup first.
The man went back into the house. He climbed up the stairs and opened the door into Hiccup's room. The boy was asleep on his bed, surrounded by books and scrolls. He was amazed that Hiccup managed to sleep through the earthquake.
'Then again.' Stoick thought as he approached the sleeping boy. 'He must be really tired from studying.'
The man moved away the books and scrolls onto the table. He pulled the blanket up to envelop the boy. When that was done, he leaned down and kissed him at his forehead. The father smiled as he stared at his sleeping son. Deciding that he was safe, the man went out from the room and closed the door behind him.
He had Vikings to organise.
The damages from the earthquake was mediocre. Nothing seemed to come out of it. Vikings did wonder what caused them. After a few days, however, Vikings simply forget that it ever happened.
Gobber and Stoick were standing at the docks in their harbour. Hiccup was also there, standing behind Stoick. It was early in the morning. Trader Johann was coming in with his ship. The trader's ship was a large longship with several cabins abroad. They allowed the ship to dock onto their harbour. The Vikings around them began tying the ropes to the mooring post, to make sure it did not go adrift while docked.
After everything was set, it was time for them to conduct their business. Hiccup, Stoick and Gobber walked up into the longship through a ramp. Going up the place, they allowed Johann's men and Berkian Vikings to move goods in and out of the ship. The village had done their deal on their previous stop at Berk. It was time for them to continue that deal.
"Ah, master Stoick!" Johann jovially greeted them. "It is nice to see you."
Trader Johann was a tall, lanky man. He had dark brown hair and beard tied into a twist knot. He wore a cream-coloured sack hat, deep-blue and white long-sleeved shirt, pinstriped trousers and light brown boots. The man also wore cloth bracers and brown belt with a yellow pack around his waist.
"Johann." Stoick greeted as he pulled out a pouch of gold from his furred cloak. "Usual trade, but I need more iron."
The trader grabbed the pouch of gold. He opened it to check the amount. After some time, the man looked at the sailors of his ship. "Give them 5 more iron crates!"
"Yes, captain!" The sailors shouted.
Johann pocketed the pouch of gold. He looked at Hiccup. "And what about you, Hiccup?" He asked with a smile. "Do you want to buy anything?"
"Can I have a box of ink?" The boy requested. "I need a lot of papers too."
"Ah." The trader nodded as he moved to grab a wooden box behind him. "A bit of coincidence. I have this thing that's meant for the previous village. But the whole place was destroyed before I could even deliver them. It's full of ink and paper." He placed the crate in front of Hiccup. "Since they're already paid for, I think you can have this for free."
The boy looked down to the crate. He moved to hoist the crate from the ground. It was surprisingly light for its size. Hiccup looked up to the trader. "Thanks, Johann!"
"No problem. It was my pleasure." Johann nodded, smiling at him.
Hiccup walked out from the ship, heading to the Haddock house. Gobber, Stoick and Johann simply watched him leave. Once he left the place, the chief looked at the trader. "Which village was destroyed?"
Johann grimaced. "It was the Lava-Louts."
Stoick and Gobber paled. They could guess what happened to them. "What happened?"
"Ah, the whole island was destroyed, master Stoick." The trader told the story. "Nothing was left there, except for rocks and lava. We found one survivor there to tell the tale. The next day, he died, and we had to throw him off the ship."
"What did he tell you?"
"It was a dragon raid." Johann whispered as he leaned close to them. "They had two Night Furies blowing up the place. He told us that they destroyed their lava dam. He said those two had destroyed the whole island. One of 'em did something to the volcano and made the whole place erupt."
Stoick was filled with dread. There was an earthquake and a loud bang coming from somewhere few days ago. He never thought it would have been caused by the Night Fury. "Was it the earthquake from days ago?"
"Aye. I felt it." The trader nodded. "Northern Market, Bog-Burglars – everyone felt it. We thought it was just a massive earthquake from somewhere. Turns out, it was Lava-Lout island volcano erupting."
"Did ye believed it?" Gobber questioned.
Johann let out a hearty laugh. "Believe them? Hah!" He laughed. "What a madman believed such thing! To think that a Night Fury smart enough to do something like that with no reason. Everyone told them not to build there like that, now look at them! Something probably snapped and they tried to blame it on dragons."
Stoick and Gobber nervously laughed along. "Aye." The chief nodded. "Ridiculous."
"All those greed finally came biting back on them." Gobber remarked as he rubbed his chin. "Who could've thought that buildin' right in the middle of lava was a bad idea."
"Aye." Johann nodded. He smiled as he placed his hands on his hips. "Now, anything else your village wants to buy, master Stoick?"
"Well…" Stoick started as he stroked his beard. He remembered that Hiccup was still studying. He would most likely burn through that crate of ink and papers in matter of weeks. "We could use a whole lot more ink and paper…"
Later that afternoon, everyone had conducted their business. Trader Johann went off sailing away from Isle of Berk. Stoick and Gobber were watching them sailing away from the cliff. The two men were alone there, overseeing the ocean. There was nobody around them.
Then, Gobber decided to break the silence. "I wonder if those dragons were… ya know."
"Hmm." Stoick frowned. "I think so. The story fits. We know that there are two Night Furies so far…"
Stoick thought that Hiccup most likely had told Toothless about the Lava-Louts. The dragon most likely talked about what he had heard. She was smart, meaning that she knew what slavery meant. There was no reason why Toothless would try to take him away if he was not in danger. She most likely decided to not trust him or Gobber to take care of him.
"She's probably responsible for it." Stoick grumbled as he stroked his beard. "She joined that male Night Fury in a dragon raid. They're probably mates by now."
Gobber paled at the thought of more Night Fury to deal with. "I wonder what the other Night Fury looked like."
"We'll never know." Stoick mysteriously whispered. "If they really did destroy the Lava-Lout, then…"
'They are willing to raze a village to the ground for him.' He thought, somewhat alarmed. 'I hope this does not bounce back to us.'
Suddenly, Gobber paled as he realised something. "If they were mates already, don't ya think they'd always be together?"
Stoick thought for a moment. Then, he immediately paled. It implied that Toothless' mate was probably hidden somewhere weeks ago, watching them. That might be why Toothless was bold to take him away. She often ran away when they sensed them. This time, however, she did not immediately fly away.
"Then, had you thrown the bola that day." Stoick harrowingly whispered. "That would've been the end of us."
Gobber could not turn even paler. He realised that they had brushed with death without even knowing about it. "What should we do about this?"
"Keep Hiccup safe." Stoick firmly spoke.
"We've been doing that already."
"Then do it more." Stoick whispered. "He had indirectly destroyed the Lava-Louts by telling her. If something like this ever happened again, make sure that we are not the target."
"Aye chief."
Hiccup was resting at the familiar forest clearing. The boy was playing Maces and Talons all by himself. He was waiting for Toothless to come and play with him. It was a routine that they did together, since they did not really have anything to do that day.
The boy heard flaps of wings, and something crashed behind him. Hiccup turned around to see Toothless there. However, what was interesting was the fact that she was standing on top of a massive chest. It was most likely that she had brought them there. "Toothless!"
The dragoness jumped down from the chest. She came to him and rubbed her cheek against the boy. "Hrr…" She purred.
Hiccup looked at the chest behind her. "What is that? Why did you bring it here?"
Toothless nudged him to approach the chest. The boy stood from the bench and walked towards the object. He stopped in front of it. The chest looked ordinary, and it had four handlebars on each side. There was a latch at the centre that kept the chest shut. The boy opened the latch and pushed the chest open.
The chest was filled full of pure gold ingots. Hiccup deeply gasped at what he saw. The light from the sky reflected down onto the ingots, revealing the beauty of the wealth in front of him. The boy caressed the gold bars and felt the roughness. It was then he realised that the gold was truly pure. Pure gold was far, far more valuable than normal gold. He wondered how Toothless managed to obtain such thing.
The pure gold ingots had engravings on them. Hiccup leaned down to read the content. His eyes widened upon seeing them. There was an insignia there. He recognised them. Those were Lava-Lout Tribe symbols. The gold were Lava-Louts!
Pure Gold – 10kg
All of them had that marking, which showcased how valuable they were. Each ingot were the size of his arms, but the weight showed how pure the gold was. One kilogram of pure gold was enough to buy food for the whole village for years. There he was, standing in front of possibly metric tonnes of them.
Hiccup suddenly remembered the time when he bought ink and papers. Johann said that those were meant for a village, but it was destroyed when he came. 'Could it be from Lava-Louts?' He thought.
The boy looked at the dragoness. "Toothless…" He started.
The dragoness walked towards him. She stood next to him and sat on her hindlegs. "Hrr?" She tilted her head.
"These are Lava-Lout golds." Hiccup breathed out.
"Hrr." Toothless nodded.
"You stole this." Hiccup accused. Toothless did not answer. His mind whirred for a moment, thinking on what to ask. "Did you… destroyed the Lava-Lout Tribe?"
Toothless gave him a toothless smile. She looked pleased with herself. "Hrr…" She purred as she nodded at him.
The boy was about to ask why before he remembered what he had told her before. He had told her about how Lava-Louts asked for him in exchange for the peace treaty. She tried to take him away because she knew that there was a possibility of him being traded away to be enslaved. The dragoness had taken the matter to her own wings and destroyed the Lava-Louts to protect him.
"You did it to protect me." Hiccup breathed out. He moved forward and hugged the dragon. "Thank you."
"Hrr…" Toothless purred. The dragoness was very pleased to have him happy again.
Hiccup was horrified to know that Toothless had destroyed the Lava-Louts, but at the same time, he felt incredibly relieved. With Lava-Lout Tribe destroyed, Berk will never go to war with them. He felt comfort and protection from the dragoness that he was hugging. He was secretly happy.
Suddenly, Toothless perked up her head. Hiccup knew that that meant, and he let go of her. The dragoness looked at the forest path, before leaning down to him and gave him a wet lick. "Ew!" Right after that, she took off into the sky, flying away from the area.
Stoick had just arrived to see a glimpse of Toothless flying away. He moved to look at the boy and approached him. "Hiccup."
"Dad!" Hiccup called him out as he cleaned the saliva from his face. "Look what Toothless brought in!"
The man looked at the chest behind him. His eyes widened upon seeing the content. "Odin's beard." He whispered as he moved closer to the chest. It was full of pure gold ingots. He also recognised the symbol on the ingots, which made him extremely pale. "Lava-Lout's pure golds."
Hiccup was uncomfortable. "Toothless destroyed Lava-Lout tribe to protect me."
Stoick looked at him with pale expression. That confirmed his suspicion, and the evidence was right in front of them. The man bent down to the boy. He placed his hand on his shoulder. "Hiccup." He started. "I want you to make a promise; don't tell anyone about this."
"I promise." Hiccup responded. There was no reason why he should, anyway.
"You told her about the Lava-Louts, did you?"
The boy felt uncomfortable. "She's the only one that understands me."
"Hiccup." The chief let out a sigh. "Toothless will do anything, anything, to protect what is precious to her. You have become very valuable to her. Be careful with what you tell her, for us and your own safety."
"Okay, dad." Hiccup nodded.
Stoick gave him a soft smile. "Now." He started. "Go back to the village. I will handle this."
Hiccup silently walked down to the forest path. Stoick simply watched until the boy disappeared from his view. After some time, he looked back to the chest. The man stood from the ground and closed the chest shut. He locked the latch, before thinking what to do with it.
The man started to grow a headache at that thought. He decided it was best to get rid of those symbols first. They had to launder the pure gold before doing anything with it.
Thankfully, Gobber was good at the job. The next thing he needed to do was finding a good hiding spot to hide their newfound pure gold ingots.
Toothless and Charcoal were flying together into the Dragon Island. The male dragon was summoned to Furious' lair, and Toothless wanted to accompany him. She wanted to see what Furious looked like. The greater alpha dragon had gone completely silent after their earlier assignment, where they had to destroy the Lava-Lout Tribe.
The two Night Furies went down into the volcano. They landed in front of the giant cave entrance of darkness. After some time, a giant eye appeared from the cave entrance. Toothless audibly gulped, intimidated by the sight.
"Hi dad." Charcoal casually greeted him.
"I have read your latest report of your assignment." Furious started the conversation. "And I have this to say; Charcoal, you are officially the craziest, idiotic and smartest dragon I've ever seen."
"And!" The alpha dragon continued before they could speak. "… I am proud of you."
Charcoal straightened himself, feeling proud of himself. Toothless was happy that the greater alpha dragon was pleased with their latest performance.
"Your performance had erupted two surrounding volcanoes." The giant dragon informed them, shocking them both. "Three volcanoes suddenly became active and began erupting lava. You caused a huge earthquake across the Meridian of Misery. I could feel them from where I rest."
Toothless and Charcoal gaped at that fact. The male Night Fury did not realise that it had affected other volcanoes as well.
"I have decided that you have passed the trial." Furious declared. "From now on, you are now my second-in-command. Wear this title with proud."
Charcoal bowed to him. "Yes, Alpha. Thank you."
Furious paused, before continued speaking. "Your assignment as my second-in-command is quite simple." He spoke to them. "You are to make and organise raid assignments for raiding party to serve. You are not to participate in any of them without my permission. I have left you a Chunk for the instruction."
"Yes, Alpha."
"And one last thing." Furious noted. "You need a consort. Have you two become mates yet?"
Hiccup and Toothless were embarrassed. "W- We're still in courtship." The male dragon stuttered.
Furious bored his eyes unto Charcoal. "Do it quick and make her your consort."
"Y- Yes, Alpha."
"Now, leave."
Toothless and Charcoal took off into the air. They went out through the top, before flying towards their destination.
As they flew out from Dragon Island, Toothless was pondering about what Charcoal had done that day. "Charcoal." She started, getting his attention. "What exactly did you do back then? How did you do it?"
"Well…" Charcoal pondered, remembering his thought process. "It's something that mainland humans theorised. They have these people called scholars, which likes to theorise and think about things that exist around us."
The male dragon paused as he adjusted his flight path. "One of them asked how earthquake could happened." He explained. "And they figured out that it happened from underground. Inside the world, there's nothing but lava. Those lava from volcanoes came from underneath the world itself. Underground, this lava comes in pockets, each with different and varying pressure."
Toothless paid attention to his lecture. Charcoal continued explaining. "Earthquake happens because the walls that bordered these pockets started to shift. They called these walls: tectonic plates. When the wall shifted, pressure will change, and not only earthquake happens, but also volcanic eruption. That's how nature works."
"How does these walls shift?" Toothless questioned.
"They shift on its own. Lava kept flowing and that changes the walls. Scholars theorised that every land around the world shift ever so slightly to follow the tectonic plates underneath." Charcoal lectured as he focused on his flight.
"So, by shooting plasma blast into the volcano, you made the tectonic plates shift." The dragoness assumed.
"Kind of." Charcoal nervously chuckled. "I didn't shift the tectonic plate. I ruptured it."
Toothless blinked. "You destroyed it?"
"No. I just put a hole on it with full powered plasma blast." Charcoal explained to her. "It forced the lava pocket underneath the volcano to adjust its pressure with the other pockets. The lava pocket underneath volcanoes typically have much higher pressure. So, when I ruptured it, that expelled everything to the surface through the volcano."
Toothless fell silent. Charcoal added. "And in my defence, I didn't realise how big a lava pocket can be until I ruptured it."
The dragoness never really see the point of human intelligence. She often played with Hiccup for the sake of entertainment and spending time with her Precious Thing. She admitted that Charcoal was smart; possibly the most knowledgeable dragon that she had ever met. However, this was the first time she ever saw that sort of intelligence being weaponised.
"I think…" Toothless started. "A dragon with vast knowledge is far more dangerous than the alpha of highest authority."
Charcoal glanced at her but did not say anything. The dragoness continued speaking. "To manipulate natural disaster like that…" She whispered. "You could cause a mass destruction."
"Well." Charcoal hummed, looking ahead to their destination. "I probably wouldn't do something like that again. I don't know the structure of tectonic plates underneath, and if I'm not careful, I could've accidentally made the volcano in Dragon Island erupt."
"And you think about this now?" Toothless asked, incredulous.
"I didn't realise how big a lava pocket can be, until I learned the result of what I've done." Charcoal defended himself. Toothless rolled her eyes.
"… organise assignment Chunks for raiding party, sort Chunk tags to the appropriate places, plan out raids for raiding party to run…"
Charcoal and Toothless were together at Toothless' nest. The two dragons were resting together. The dragoness was cuddling underneath the male dragon. She felt safe and comfortable. The dragon sorceress had her eyes closed.
Charcoal, however, was busy mentally reading his new assignment from the Chunk that Furious had given him.
"… all of this is paperwork." The male dragon realised after he finished mentally reading them. "Most of them relates to mindscape."
"And majority of them can be automated with Programs." Toothless purred as she opened her eyes. "That leave you with barely any work and a lot of free time. You know what this means?"
Charcoal leaned down and pressed his head onto her neck. "That we get a lot of free time together?" He whispered.
"Exactly." Toothless purred once more. She was pleased to learn that. "I've sent a Mail Chunk to a friend of mine. She's a mind healer back at Hidden World. I've set up an appointment for both of us next year."
"Why would we need a mind healer?" Charcoal questioned.
"Because." Toothless started, explaining the situation. "You have a lot of suppressed mental trauma. It's a good solution when you don't know what to do with it, but it's bad in the long run."
"You said you're the master." Charcoal whispered as he pressed his snout onto her ears. "Are you telling me you don't know everything?"
Toothless shuddered as her breathing became heavy. "S- She's the best of the best." The dragoness explained. "She knew more about mind recovery than I do."
Charcoal moved to wrap his tail around hers. "And you don't?"
"By the skies, just breed me already." Toothless breathed out as she finally limped her body. "I can't handle your teasing."
"So, you're saying I'm mentally ill?" Charcoal tilted his head. Toothless did not answer. After some time, he decided. "I guess I'll hold off that part until I'm mentally healthy."
Toothless looked up in horror. The male dragon simply smiled at her. "After all, you wouldn't want me to claim you without asking you first, would I?"
The dragoness covered her eyes with her paws. Then, she wailed. "Come on!"
"Shush." Charcoal hushed her. "It's for both of us, isn't it?"
Toothless groaned. "We've been courting for years!" She moaned. "You kept teasing me instead of claiming me!"
"I kind of almost did just now." Charcoal admitted as he let her go. "I guess it's best for us to get mentally checked first. I don't want our relationship to end just because we're not mentally stable when we become mates together."
"Charcoal, Night Furies mate for life." Toothless moaned in displeasure. "There's also this tiny fact that you're forgetting. You're an alpha dragon, you have alpha dominance, I am your dragon, I am fully under your control. There is literally nothing that I won't do for you. Why are you so shy on using that?"
Charcoal fell silent for some time. "… you don't care about your own free will?" He quietly whispered.
It was then Toothless realised what she was implying. She implied that she would rather be his slave than being a free dragon. The dragoness stood from the ground. "T- that's not what I mean." She hastily retreated her stance.
Charcoal did not respond. Toothless continued speaking. "Charcoal, two years ago, when we first met, I was attracted to you." She confessed. "I- I've never been in a relationship before. I don't have many friends or have that much social skill. I'm always cooped up in my cave, always focused on mind arts – and now, magic."
"I was more of a traditionalist when it comes to things like this." The dragoness confessed to him. "But when I saw you… I felt like just giving myself to you. I want you to claim you right there and then two years ago. But then, we decided for courtship to get to know each other."
Charcoal was simply stared at her. Toothless looked dejected. "After two years of courtship, to me, you're the perfect dragon." She confessed. "Instead of forcing yourself to me, you ask for what I want. You bring fishes when coming here, you listened to me instead of dismissing me. No one, nobody in my whole life, had a male ever done that to me."
"And just few weeks ago, you helped me unseal my magic. And you don't even know magic!" Toothless exclaimed. She was heavily breathing. Tears poured from her eyes. "You gave me everything that I ever wished for, and you never asked anything in return. You're just so… so perfect!"
Toothless slumped her shoulder. "… yes." She whispered as she closed her eyes. "I don't care anymore. Slave me. Breed me. Whatever. Claim me. I just wanted this feeling over with."
The dragoness shuddered her breath. Thousands of emotions running in her heart, and she had no words to tell him how she felt. Suddenly, she felt something pressing her snout. The dragoness opened her eyes. Charcoal had come to her and pressed his snout against hers. His eyes was closed.
"Do you know what you're feeling, Toothless?" Charcoal asked.
Toothless sniffed. "… No. I don't."
"Love." Charcoal whispered as he opened his eyes. "That's what you're feeling."
'Love.' Toothless thought. Everything suddenly snapped together in her mind. The feeling that she had felt. It was love. The two dragons stared at each other; their eyes fully dilated. They felt the same attraction that they felt many years ago. This time, however, it seemed to be amplified by their time spent together.
"I love you, Toothless." Charcoal whispered as his eyes softened. "I love you with all my heart. That's why I'm courting you. The more I visited your nest, the stronger this feeling gets. Love is beyond courtship, mating or breeding. Courtship implies that we're figuring things out if we'd be good together. Mates doesn't necessarily mean love, because it's like human marriage. Breeding is just sexual act. Love… is far beyond that."
"… I love you, Charcoal." Toothless choked out her breath. "I- I'm sorry that I'm not a good female for you-"
"No." Charcoal firmly interrupted her. "You are the perfect dragon even if you're not perfect. Do you know why?"
Toothless closed her eyes. Charcoal continued speaking. "Because imperfections are artistic." He whispered. "You are the perfect dragon, Toothless. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise."
The dragoness did not respond. Charcoal slowly pushed her snout with his. Toothless slowly collapsed on her back, her body fully limp. The male dragon moved and climbed on top of her. The two dragons stared at each other, before pulled themselves into a hug.
"Why after the mind healer?" Toothless quietly asked.
"Because I wanted to make sure that I am truly myself when I claimed you." Charcoal confessed. "I don't want to hurt you. After the mind healer declared us healthy, I will claim you." He let out a small smile. "I will breed you for a whole day, if that's what you want."
Toothless choked her breath. It made sense why he wanted to see mind healer first. While his mind seemed fine, suppressing and modifying memories to hide trauma was akin to trapping a Monstrous Nightmare in a net. It might work now, but it would release itself eventually. It could suddenly blow up unexpectedly, and that could lead to abuse.
Toothless had heard enough horror stories of terrible mates at Hidden World from Amber.
"Okay." The dragoness finally spoke. "I'm waiting for you to claim me after mind healer."
Charcoal smiled. He rested himself on top of her. The two dragons let out a long, loud purr. They felt comfortable at their embrace. They closed their eyes, relaxing themselves. It did not take long for them to fell asleep together.
"And that's all of them."
It was middle of the night. Stoick and Gobber were standing inside a large cave clearing, with the chief holding up a torch. There was a solid iron gate that was blocking the cave way to the exit. At the corner of the cave clearing, there was a massive stacks of pure gold ingots with Berk insignia on them. Those pure gold ingots were roughly a kilogram per piece, and there were so many of them.
"The door should hold up and stop anyone from entering." Gobber explained to the chief. "It should be safe."
"Aye." Stoick nodded. "Thanks, Gobber."
The two men went out from the cave clearing. They closed the door behind them. Gobber pulled out a key and used it to lock the iron door. When that was done, the blacksmith gave the key to the chief. Stoick and Gobber began walking down the cave way, heading out from the cave.
After the discovery of the Lava-Louts pure gold, Stoick and Gobber worked overtime to launder them. They completely melted them and casted them into smaller, kilogram pieces with Berk insignia on them. The two of them did it all alone, since they did not want anyone to know about its whereabouts. They did not even make a map for it, fearing anyone discovering them.
"Say…" Gobber started. "I haven't asked this, but how did ye got yourself Lava-Lout gold?"
Stoick glanced for a moment. "Toothless brought them to Hiccup."
The blacksmith paled. "How did she get them?"
"What do you think?" The chief dryly spoke. He looked exhausted from everything. "Hiccup told her about Lava-Louts. She brought her partner and destroyed the whole tribe. Those golds were her gift to him for the trouble."
Gobber could only stare at the chief with horror. "She led the dragons there to pillage them."
"… maybe." Stoick shrugged. "It could be that male Night Fury that did it. She's just there to watch and steal the chest."
The two men walked out from the cave. They were in the middle of the forest, at the Isle of Berk. The entrance was hidden inside a dirt corridor. They walked out from the place, before heading down towards the village.
"So…" Gobber started, getting his attention. "What are we gonna do with it?"
Stoick paused, before replying. "In case we need gold." He stroked his beard. "We can use them. We use the one we have right now, and if that's gone, we can use this. One kilo should be enough to refill everything."
The blacksmith nodded, agreeing with that sentiment. He had checked the gold. It was so pure; they could turn one kilogram into a hundred after diluting them. It was extremely valuable. "Aye. That doesn't sound bad."
Back at Dragon Island, the whole place was rumbling. Furious was extremely pleased to learn that Toothless had submitted herself to Charcoal. It mean that he had recruited her into Dragon Rebellion. They had gotten themselves a dragon sorceress participating in Dragon Rebellion.
'Yes…' Furious mentally purred. 'All is well in the world…'
The greater alpha dragon knew that his son and Toothless truly loved each other. He did not have to worry about her hurting him. However, his focus was onto something else. Having a dragon sorceress as his mate would make powerful offspring, especially given their background. He could already guess from the prediction that he had made years ago.
'They would become strong.' Furious thought, giddy. 'So strong, every dragon will bend to their will.'
Furious thought about his prediction from before. He thought Charcoal and Toothless would retire after fulfilling their destiny. That was something they fully deserved, after all. Their children would take over, while their parents rested to reap what they sow. He did not dare to peek the future to see what their children would do. He did not want to spoil everything.
'If Charcoal ever missed some of them.' Furious thought, mulling over what he know about magic so far. 'Their children would control them. It is their right to rule over humans too, after all.'
He had altered the fate of Charcoal after seeing what he could do. It was best not to interfere anymore, as it could terribly affect the future. Furious had a role in this world, and that was to wipe humans from the face of the world. He had set the path in motion. All he had to do was wait.
Author Note
What does Mind Arts based off?
It was a combination of modern computers and internet, Harry Potter occlumency and legilimency, and how alpha dragons worked in general. I mixed them up and make them a bit flawed in concept. This is intentional.
At the very simple but probably flawed explanation, internet is simply computers connected to one another. The concept of mindscape came from Harry Potter. The hierarchy comes from me trying to figure out how in the world franchise alpha is really like in this setting.
Mind art would play a major part in the story. This is why I put "psychological horror" warning above in the Legend section. There are more stuff there and there, with the most damaging one probably near the end of the book. Anything you imagined when it comes to "Mind Arts" would most likely happen.
Can you explain more about mind arts?
I'm going to add the explanation that Toothless neglected to tell Charcoal. In the story, she was boasting her pride as a Night Fury. She's not wrong at all, but there are some things that she sort of neglected on telling, and some of them she just doesn't know at all.
The increased mental strength dragons obtained from their alpha will go down to the dragons bonded with them. However, instead of based on their alpha, it will be based on them instead. It creates a natural "trickle-down" hierarchy, where dragons get mentally powerful from bonding their mind, as well as dragons bonded with them.
The further they were in hierarchy, the weaker it becomes. It could get to the point where the influence became nearly non-existent. However, this can be offset if the highest hierarchy was far more powerful than the ones below them. Increase mental strength is limited by tenfold.
If their alpha still have leftovers, the rest will be passed onto dragons bonded with them. If there's remaining mental strength, it will pass on to dragons bonded with them. It will keep going on and on, until either reaching the end, or mental strength from their bonded dragons are not completely full anymore.
It gives a reason why dragons were more inclined to follow their 'alpha.' It is also why dragons wanted someone in position of power to be far more mentally powerful than them. If the alpha was strong, the ones down below will enjoy the benefits of having stronger mind.
Mental strength is generally measured by dragon's willpower. It can be temporarily increased under certain circumstances, like being together or protecting their loved ones. This won't get passed down, as it was personal to them.
What else can mind art do?
What Toothless explained was what every dragon could do. However, what she did not explain was how certain dragons have some specific abilities that made them who they are.
Deadly Nadder is known for their tracking capabilities. In addition to that, they have a long range "mind radar" ability to find and identify dragons. This goes for any tracker dragons, and it was why they were called as such.
Monstrous Nightmares would be able to sense any kind of fire within their vicinity. Gronckle can sense different kinds of rocks around them. Others, like Hideous Zippleback and Death Song have mind-related abilities unique to them, like how Zippleback can 'fog' opponents' mind to confuse them, or Death Song mimicking alpha dragon commands with their mind. Deathgripper in particular can disable dragon abilities with their mind, or slow their use to certain extent.
Most strike class dragons were all-rounder, such as Night Fury, Light Fury, Woolly Howl, and Triple Stryke, in addition to some 'special' ones they could get when they get older. They can do what many other dragons do, but they need to learn how to do it. They typically specialise in one thing, because they usually won't have that much time to learn about the other. Unless they have a long lifespan, of course.
Which is why Toothless was prideful as a species. From her father, she learned about mind intrusion and whatnot. It was what she specialised in. Amber and Light Furies specialised in mental recovery because that's what they were taught. They could learn from each other if they want, and they could be on par together, but if they have no interest, it doesn't really matter.
Abilities that other dragons have will be showcased more in future books.
What does it mean by mind proficient dragon?
This is how dragons classify themselves. They classify based on their base abilities at birth. There are many different classifications as well, and they usually have more than one classification.
Deadly Nadder, Rumblehorn and other tracker class dragons were considered tracking proficient dragons, because of their great senses and radar-like mind. Some dragons would also get long-range dragon classification, such as Deadly Nadder and Silver Phantom.
Gronckles and other strength-based dragons would be physical proficient dragons. Dragons built for stealth like Changewing would be stealth proficient. Mind proficient dragons are things like Death Song, because they were born with ability to make thralls to attract dragons, and mimic dragons' alpha influence to control them; and Bewilderbeast, because of their sheer mental strength in mind arts.
The proficiency names were made obvious, so it's easy to think and imagine what they could do. It's just that their specific abilities would be the one that made them special.
What is Alpha Dominance?
Alpha dominance was basically what the franchise Alpha would be. However, instead of having only one dragon with alpha dominance, certain dragons could gain them in extreme duress under certain circumstances, unwillingly. For Charcoal/Hiccup, Furious forced him to put himself in extreme pain, and Charcoal/Hiccup was mentally strong enough to defy his control and ascended.
There are other ways for someone to get them, but this is the most 'common' one. Toothless only know one dragon with alpha dominance. There are more dragons with alpha dominance out there. Extremely rare, but they do exist and usually live in solitary.
Other than that, it's just as what Toothless explained to Charcoal/Hiccup during their mind arts study session. There will be a different, upgraded kind of alpha dominance. This won't have any classification because they are the same thing, with additional stuff sprinkled in.
It also affects dragons bonded with them. Because the concept of mental strength and range is non-existent with them, they become unlimited. Dragons bonded with them, as well as through proxy, would get the same tenfold increase of mental strength, all the way to the end.
Hiccup/Charcoal have mental trauma?
This is the part that I want to make somewhat realistic. Dragons are intelligent here – they have their own ways of life, and some form of freewill. They can understand humans, but not the other way around. This was kind of why Dragon Rebellion happened. Every dragon have their own reasons as to why they joined the Dragon Rebellion.
Because they are intelligent, they were not immune to horrors and mental trauma. Mentally, they are somewhat on par with humans, despite humans never acknowledging them as their equal – which was why Dragon Rebellion was a thing in the first place. Hiccup/Charcoal is not immune to it, and soon, Toothless would experience that as well.
Soldier of war saw a lot of things in their lives. The structure of Dragon Rebellion is based on World War 1. Suffice to say, it's safe to assume that some dragons were not happy with that arrangement. However, they don't have a choice. Right now, they have the mentality of us or them.
Why do Dragonese mixed with actual physical speech, such as grunts, purrs etc.?
Originally, I wanted to have Dragonese speak like "A Gift of Wings" by Deadly-Bagel. But then I realised that some things just wouldn't translate well from normal language. It's best to just make Dragonese a dragon version of human language. I added the physical speech because it's meant to replace human equivalent of them, such as purring instead of humming. "Hrr…" instead of "Hmm…"
For example, during the writing phase, Toothless' explanation was long. I don't know how I could translate that without losing some specific wording if I did it like Deadly-Bagel. I'm not smart enough to construct a whole new different way of speaking a language. I don't know where to start without making me cringe when writing them.
Reading a story is one thing. Deadly-Bagel did an amazing work on Dragonese for his story. I, on the other hand, are terrible at it. It's best not to mess with it and just do whatever book or franchise did with Dragonese.
How intelligent are dragons in this story?
Dragons are as intelligent as humans. Because of mind arts, they have significant advantage over humans in terms of development. They are more advanced than humans at their era on their own ways.
What's the history of dragons in this story?
The age was canonically 11th century. The Viking age. It was five centuries after the western Roman empire collapsed. Everyone was going through the Middle Ages. The medieval period. There's the Germanic peoples forming new kingdoms from the remains of western Roman empire. There's the middle east that's becoming a thing. Religion and crusades were brewing up in Europe – or mainland, as I called them in the story.
Humanity was still figuring things out with their politics. It's the Middle Ages for them. Dragons, however, was at their own version of darker Early Modern period.
Because of the flawed nature of mind arts, dragons were at this darker version of information age. Everything and anything they wanted to know could be obtained in an instant, but anyone could see and hear what was being passed through them. Because any communication needed to go through them, given how mind art works, dragons could block certain things from moving through their mind.
This particular alternate history for dragons would be the main driving plot for this series. It would play major part in the story. It would be expanded and explained further, but for now, this is what I have for you for this book.
What about Dragon Rebellion?
Humans are the de facto enemy of all dragons. Dragons bonded themselves with alpha and joined the Dragon Rebellion because of various reasons, but it all relates to how human treated dragons. The Dragon Rebellion was happening everywhere in Meridian of Misery.
This is how various alphas managed to maintain their power. Dragons had so much hatred against humans because of what they had done to their species. They look up to those who could lead them to crusade against humans. It was not always the case, however, as dragons in some region might get sick of the war that happened. When this happened, they either shut themselves in from the war, or migrate to Hidden World.
This will be the major arc for Wodensfang. You could probably guess how this happened, and how it relates to Wodensfang if you read the summary, but I'll leave this up for your imagination. He's not going to appear until the next book.
End Note
Thank you for reading my story. Thank you for leaving reviews and comments.
Next chapter will be posted around 29-30 June 2022, depending on the time zone.
