AN:\\ Alright everyone I'm sorry it took so long, but hey you can't really blame me at 16.9K. Anyway, LEPShot deserves SO much love because without his epic choreography skills and insight into characters that he didn't even create, this chapter would never have gotten done. I must WARN ALL OF YOU, THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS INTENSELY PHYSICAL ROMANTIC MATERIAL THAT IS IDEOLOGICALLY SENSITIVE IN NATURE. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED. So, there's your warning. Don't come crying to me if you ignore it. Enjoy!

Oh, and sorry if there are any stupid errors. I was so excited to have it done, the final check was cursory at best.

Chapter 33

Ito

It was a glorious night. A sliver of moon cast faint, silver light down on the clouds that drifted lazily over the sea. The air was calm, yet strangely warm for this time of year. Winter was setting in, but it seemed that there was one final burst of summer in the wind.

Below, among the clouds, dark shapes darted and dived. Occasionally, two shapes would intersect and violently break away from each other. Ito, unlike the other males, floated high above at rest on a north-flowing air current. He could not keep his eyes on any of the shapes except the one he had been seeking since his flight began.

Varra.

Her flight was graceful, agile and quick. Regardless of the shapes that tried to approach her, she deftly avoided and sent them spinning away. There simply wasn't a single Shade that could match her, and none that deserved to.

But Ito knew that he could.

Taking one final breath, the young male folded his wings and dropped like a stone. Wind screamed passed, but not for a single moment did he take his eyes off of her.

As she made a loop to tease a male that had just missed her, the dim moonlight caught her scale and Ito found himself simply staring. Rivulets of light flowed down her side and danced across her outstretched wings. The only sound that came to him was the dull and disappointed cry of the male that had missed. Ito felt his heart leap.

It was his night. This was the time. He angled his wings slightly, rotating onto his back as he fell below, and past her. When she looked down, the expression in her posture was so surprised, Ito let out a rolling laugh before snapping his wings upwards and grasped the female.

With a brief scream of alarm from Varra, they both fell toward the star-riddled sea.

It was a violent fall. The female did her utmost to win free of the alien limbs that gripped her, giving Ito several kicks to the abdomen and a deep scratch on the underside of his left foreleg, but he maintained his grip. Varra's screams of anger became louder and louder, until one final cry was followed immediately by a splash.

Ito opened his eyes to the darkness of water. He still had hold of the struggling female, but she had redoubled her efforts to get free.

The male let his eyes fall shut with a slow and calm motion of his tail, and gave himself up to waiting. Each of his six limbs set and were numb to the violent thrashing of the angry female they held as he focused on his own body and the jarring coldness of the ocean around him.

And he waited.

In total, it took about a half hour for Varra's struggling to calm and slow to nothing more than the occasional twitch as she ran out of oxygen. Ito let his jaw part, and he clamped his gum around her longest left ear. The female started, but after a moment, began to hum deep in her throat as all of her muscles relaxed.

Ito's eye snapped open.

For just a moment, he was not able to move. He felt Varra shift, and he loosened his hold ever so slightly.

A soft warmth at his throat.

Ito's wings sprang open, and he threw himself upwards as strange and wonderful thoughts flooded his mind: Memories that weren't his; thoughts of another.

As he burst from the waves, he pumped his wings harder than he could ever remember in his life, forcing the sky to yield before him and let him pass. The warm presence that engulfed his mind followed him, and he was aware of Varra climbing by his side. The swarm of Shades fell beneath them far quicker than Ito would have thought possible; the clouds likewise.

Memories flowed swiftly between their minds, so much so that they became no more than a brilliant, golden web woven between them. It was a channel to a new life; a doorway to the future.

As Ito looked about with his physical eyes, there was nothing but stars. A horizon was not even evident, as the featureless ocean reflected the sky above. There, in the midst of this sea of stars, was Varra hanging with him in the silent, glimmering darkness.

Slowly, their wings closed, and the fall began.

And yet, they did not seem to be falling; there was no wind, no earth - just darkness, the stars, and her. Ito closed his eyes and he felt he need never open them again as foreign legs encircled him while his wings closed over two bodies.

Even the stars winked out now. The moment was perfect, and there was no longer any distinction between them. He knew simultaneously himself, and all that he was, along with Varra. They were one.

There was a violent impact. Just as quickly as it had appeared, the glowing warmth inside vanished.

Ito opened his eyes and found that he was falling; truly falling. The clouds whipped past and in the distance, he could see Varra and a male Shade flying each other, nipping and batting with tails and paws.

The presence and his knowledge of Varra were ripped away, and Ito found that he could not quite come to terms with their loss. Ice spread through his chest, and he could not bring himself to do anything other than stare as he fell away from what had been his.

He let out a gasp of pain as he hit the water, feeling the dull crack as his splayed wings snapped, but the pain was far away; he could not feel it when such icy agony already coursed through his center.

Even as he fell deeper into the darkness, he could still see the two shapes above glowing with brilliant golden light, dancing to and fro.

Thrilled, to have found each other.

Ito let his eyes fall closed.

XXX

Astrid

A dry, rasping sound greeted Astrid when she woke. The sound was swiftly followed by swirling star patterns that burst across the inside of her eyelids in strange mixtures of color. Pain followed that.

Dull, steady throbbing beat against the inside of her head like a mallet, deafening her and preventing her from concentrating on anything in particular.

After a few minutes in the darkness with nothing but the steady pounding and equally steady rapsing to keep her company, Astrid finally opened her eyes.

A starry sky obstructed by the dark and swaying shapes of trees greeted her, tinged slightly with splashes of color still rippling across the entire view. A light and frigid breeze played through the forest, causing rushes of goose flesh all along her entire body as she shivered.

That was when Astrid became aware of the slight warmth. Now that there was cold to compare with, she sensed that each rasp that she heard was accompanied by a brief flash of warmth somewhere on her body; her side, her calf, her arm. It was the strangest sensation. It was when the grating warmth blossomed at her chest that she was made suddenly aware that this was a thing to be concerned about.

Deftly, she lifted her head and looked downward. That action was immediately followed by a blast of pain that hit the back side of her head like a rock, and a sight that greatly disturbed her.

A large, spade-shaped head dipped low over her frame with two burning, green eyes appearing to float at its center. The thing's tongue was visible as it started to run up her abdomen, through a gaping hole in her shirt and just grazing the underside of her breast. Astrid's hand automatically clenched into a fist and wrenched itself up from its rest to connect solidly with the side of the dragon's head.

There was an aggrieved-sounding yowl, and the Viking found her vision obscured as black, scaly walls rose on all sides. Pressure constricted her body from her right side, and she found herself in a rock steady hold.

Seems you treat dragons the same way you treat me.

Strangely, when 'Hiccup's' voice spoke, the thudding pain increased.

Astrid replied aloud. "If you had gone anywhere near my chest, I would not have left your head intact."

Gurgling emanated from the large mass beside her, accompanied by 'Hiccup's chuckles.

Now shut up and let him finish cleaning your wounds.

"Cleaning my..." A painful image flashed through her mind; Hiccup, leaning back in the embrace of a massive reptile, with the beast's rough tongue lapping at his damaged face.

The scaly prison physically encasing her slowly broke apart, and the head turned to continue lapping at her abdomen. The warmth returned, seeping down through her skin and quieting her shivers.

The dragon only spent a few licks on each wound. After a few minutes had passed, he began to breath deeply, subsiding onto his side and once again and closing around her what Astrid now realized were his wings.

With a shuddering breath and a few very worried thoughts, she was pulled into the peaceful oblivion of sleep.

XXX

Ito

He started awake as he did every sunset; shaking the crushing weight of drowning away, as one might flick away a southern insect. The rest of the Wing was coming to as well, and Myzaflicked the last of his dream away so the others would not have to endure it.

Ito snarled quietly, dropping from the stone outcrop to the cave floor. Myza dropped beside him while the other Shades began to shift and make for their feet. Zonni was the first on her paws, and she swiftly moved to pace back and forth at the entrance of the chamber. Pyke and Crawn took their time standing and stretching each limb, drawing all manner of creaks and cracks from their joints as they did.

The Wing leader glanced at each Shade silently, then grunted his usual waking command and sent the group moving single file through the entrance.

The tunnel's darkness seemed thicker than usual as the Wing made its way through the winding passages.

Ito found that he had to struggle to keep his thoughts away from the dream. He knew that lingering amongst those memories would only distract him, but he found himself floating, unbidden through the watery murk. Alone.

A sharp snap echoed against the stone as Myza's tail flicked across Ito's ear, whipping it forward and producing a ringing in his skull.

Ito gave a guttural snarl and his right foreleg lifted, striking backwards with the joint. It met Myza's side and the female quickly backed away, returning to her place in line. Once the Wing was quiet again, Ito returned his attention to the way ahead.

What he found before him halted the entire line in its tracks. Another tunnel had intersected with theirs, and frozen mid-step at the center of the intersection was the falseling standing beside, of all Shades, him. Her strange body stood rigid and her eyes were wide, darting as if to see each individual detail of Ito's Wing. Behind her, Sycle glared with sullen rage.

For a moment, nothing moved. No creature breathed. All was silent.

The falseling's wings lifted slightly, and her head cocked in an attitude of defiance.

"I hear you're interested in humans, Ito. Doesn't really seem to be a good match. Toothless is the only one I know of that can stand the boy's presence for long. And you want him for a mate?"

The last word rose in pitch and dripped with sarcasm.

All four Shades standing behind Ito let out piercing and angry roars. The sound bounced around the stone and reverberated into the distance. The alien did not even flinch. She simply stood and gazed at Ito.

With a deep breath, Ito responded."My actions are not of your concern, nor is the human. He does not belong here."

"Ito, it is most certainly my concern when someone moves to kill my Wing mate." The female's voice seemed to deepen, echoing slightly through Ito's head. The word mate extended for an unnatural duration before it faded into the thick silence of the tunnel. Ito shivered.

"Get out of our way, falseling."

He could not have been sure of it, but as the glowing orbs of green turned away to continue up the passage, he thought he caught a flash of angry amber.

As she passed, Sycle stayed where he was.

"I'd be careful Ito. I'm off to see the Three to tell them what I know of the human's dreams. He won't be so easily quelled."

Without another word, he stalked after the alien.

XXX

Ito dug his claws into the ice, shoving his weight behind his shoulder and cancelling Zonni's momentum and then some as she charged at him. The female impacted the permafrosted ground violently, screeching when her left wing was dragged through a rough patch of ice while her body weighed down on it.

"Don't be an idiot; a single look should tell you that there's no way to bully me around. You're smaller and faster, so use that to your advantage."

The female rolled back onto her paws, shaking her head to clear the stars from her vision and distract herself from the pain in her largest limb. She snarled and sprinted to Ito's left, circling him and forcing him to constantly shift his paws to keep her in front of him. Ito knew exactly the tactic she was using, as well as the type of attack that would follow, and he snorted in disappointment; Zonni had such potential, and it was infuriating to see her waste it trying to be something she was not.

Sure enough, the small Shade pounced towards Ito, flaring her wings and constantly shifting her direction to try and get her opponent to move. The second the female's muscles tensed, Ito anchored himself once more, meeting his Wing mate's attack head-on and making her cry out when a huge, scared paw impacted her muzzle, driving her to the ground.

"Enough!" Ito moved, planting one paw squarely on top of Zonni's neck and slamming the the onto her left hind leg, just below the hip. The young dragon cried out and thrashed as the piece of cartilage embedded in her muscle from when she was only a hatchling ripped the insides of her leg apart and set it on fire, but Ito stayed in place. "Once you let an opponent with a size, weight and experience advantage get ahold of you, it's over!"

"I know!" Zonni screeched back, attempting to shift her old wound away from her aggressor. The male noticed this and pressed more of his weight down, drawing a prolonged wail from her.

"Clearly, you do not. Otherwise, you would have kept your distance instead of charging directly at me." Ito finally relented, lifting his paws and allowing his Wing mate to get up. "You have speed and agility over your opponent; maximize that advantage using disabling strikes and staying out of my range."

Zonni snorted, shaking her head and leaping to her feet. Ito backed away, resuming his defensive stance. "You also forget that the purpose of this exercise is to find an opening in my defenses, both to improve your own combat prowess and to help me find my own weaknesses. You cannot do that while pinned beneath me."

Growling, Zonni shot a small fireball at her leader, but it was harmlessly deflected by his wings.

"A waste of energy while I am capable of responding." To punctuate, Ito sent his own shot into the ice at Zonni's feet, sending another at her when she was blinded by the screen of white thrown in front of her. Hearing the impact and the screech as his second shot connected made his chest tighten and his hackles twitch; the young Shade could have easily dodged that, had she not been distracted by the first fireball.

As the older Shade snorted in disgust, there was a rush of air originating from behind the fading screen of ice and snow, and Ito raised his wing to cover his face once more, expecting another fireball. When one did indeed impact his limb, he did not hesitate to denounce the action once more.

"Heavens take you! I swear to the stars if you do not stop..."

Above him, a piercing whistle sounded, and even as Ito reflexively curled his limbs inwards, realizing that it was too late to counterattack, he couldn't help but feel slightly impressed with the speed at which his Wing mate had gotten into the air; the window of time between his wing obscuring his vision and lowering the limb was a fraction of a second.

The old Shade had barely enough time to form a shell around his ribs with his wings before Zonni landed on his back. The youngling's sustained fire bored into his neck while her claws slashed at his wing joints, tearing up scale, and for a moment, Ito was genuinely overcome with pain and unable to react. Pressing her advantage, Zonni turned her fire to the exposed flesh along the tears in his wings, and though Ito had been trying to keep his ear plates and eyes protected, his head thrashed and he screeched as his injuries were cauterized in the most excruciating manner.

As quickly as she had descended upon him, Zonni was off of his back, once more in the air. Having both wings and the back of his neck as injured as they were, Ito had difficulty moving once he heard his opponent send another fireball at him. While he was able to dodge to the left by rolling and avoid the shot, another two could be heard flying right at him already, and he braced for the impacts.

Zonni had amazing accuracy; both fireballs exploded on top of the burn mark on her leader's neck, driving his chin into the ice with their force and overloading his mind with pain.

"How was that for a waste of energy? Do you submit, Leader?"

Ito lifted his chin from the small indent in the ice Zonni had forced him to make, shaking his head violently. The action rekindled the inferno of pain in his neck, and he flared and stretched his wings simultaneously. While the agony would blur the vision of others, it brightened the details of the world around the scarred dragon; even from a distance, the exact pattern of Zonni's scale was distinguishable; the precise direction and force of the wind was apparent against his muzzle.

His posture and muscles relaxed as he spoke, though he remained perfectly alert of all around him.

"Do not take damage done to a still-living body as a victory, Zonni." Ito's words were slow and heavy, and they matched the rhythm of his pain-laden breath."Submission is not offered by the loser. It is a spoil, taken by the victor by right of superiority."

The final phrase rose until it was echoed by a furious roar from the old dragon. He leapt toward the startled she-dragon, who stumbled and fell back over her own legs and tail in an attempt to get out of the way. With a short cry, she tumbled over the lip of the drop.

Ito closed his maw and sat back, waiting until the figure of Zonni rose back into view.

"If you had no wings, that would have been a kill."

The distant figure let out a screech of defiance, making it very clear that she cared not for what would or could have happened.

It was not a very long wait before she was back within range. Once she was, the male Shade opened his jaw and fired three shots in rapid succession. The first, Zonni was able to avoid, but in doing so, she allowed the other two to hit, one on the underside of her left wing, the other grazing her right rib. The result was an awkward and graceless spiral that sent her plummeting into a snowdrift, with a mighty 'pfff' of snow marking her impact.

With a few bounds punctuated by bursts of pain, Ito rushed the spot where Zonni had fallen. The young dragon burst from the drift and met the oncoming male with a double-pawed strike from above. Ito stepped smartly to one side and sunk his right side paws deep into the snow. When Zonni landed where he'd been, he threw his left shoulder into her side, knocking the breath out of her and jumbling her thoughts.

The female tipped with a despairing snort, failing to right her balance with her wings as her left hind leg buckled, refusing to take the majority of her weight. As she fell, Ito turned rapidly and placed a paw against the she-dragon's wing close to the shoulder, as well as one against the side of her neck. He bore down and made the fall even swifter.

After the snow was finished settling, he pushed down on both points.

"Yield."

Not a request, no trace of concern - a simple, direct and powerful demand.

For a single moment, Zonni considered denying him before she realized that he would simply break her wing, then ask again. With one last deep breath, she responded.

"Yield."

Ito stepped away and lifted back onto his hind legs, drawing breath and releasing it in a high-pitched and short whistling note.

Myza, Pyke and Crawn turned away from each other near the edge of the cliff where they'd been sparring and loped over to the two.

"Combat practice is done for today. Myza will oversee endurance practice on the cliff side. No flying. If you fall, you dive."

When Ito said no more, Myza clicked and turned, pacing away. The others turned to follow her.

As she went, she sent a private thought back without turning.

"Is it really so wise to push yourself just to teach a lesson on the eve of mortal battle?"

Ito remained silent.

After the his Wing had disappeared over the edge, Ito broke into a run and lifted into the air, letting the frigid fingers of wind caress and soothe the cauterized scratches in his wing(s). With fevered pumps, he climbed up into the thin air where nothing else flew, not even clouds. He locked his wings and closed his eyes.

Waiting.

XXX

Unknown

The heavyset Red Scales made good time through the trees, sniffing at the air at each intake of breath for any sign of the intruders. Tiny-horned Yellow Scales rushed over and through the trees, ensuring a clear view of the forest floor. High above, the spine-tailed Blue Scales stayed hidden in the clouds, with eyes darting back and forth for any sign of sleek-winged Black Scales among the clouds. A northern Shade haunted these woods and skies, denying control. It was maddening.

Behind the lines of forward hunters came the power to enforce them; round-bodied Tiny Wings in the air, and sickly-scaled Two Heads on the ground. When the hunters identified their quarry, these reserves would surround and decimate them.

It was silent and uneventful for most of the day, but as the sun arked high overhead, sounds of humans began to waft in from the distance, halting the hunting party in their tracks and causing all to freeze.

After only a few seconds, every body began a faster pace through wood and cloud, seeking out the foolish voices and their owners.

The hunt was on.

XXX

Astrid

Astrid woke to warmth - close, tender and comforting warmth that encased her on all sides. She felt as though she were resting in bed with her mother, like she had so many years ago.

But this was different; something was holding her, something large and strong and masculine. She could feel muscle rippling against her back as breath whistled in and out of a cavernous set of lungs.

After a moment, she remembered.

Without pausing to notice that the pain was gone, Astrid pushed upwards and outward with her hands, and once they encountered scaly resistance, she shoved.

The wings broke apart surprisingly easily, unfolding and opening a view of the sky that allowed harsh and brilliant sunlight to rush in and blind her. Astrid clamped her eyes shut and rolled away from the beast that she knew was so close, but she did so with half the speed she might have, as though her heart really wasn't in escaping. When she could no longer feel leathery scale beneath her, she rose to a crouch and placed her face into the crook of her arm, shielding her eyes.

There was a groggy-sounding snuffle to her left. Carefully, she removed her eyes from cover little by little, allowing them to adjust to the glare.

When they were finally open, she beheld a familiar scene; around her was the greenery of the forest stretching away in all directions, and before her lay an enormous black shape with a small yellow bundle beside it, just beneath the shade of a massive fallen tree.

If she squinted, she could just make out the shape of a dark hole in the rise behind the tree among it's roots past the glare of the morning sun.

Astrid looked downward and checked herself - there were several gaps in most of her clothing; at least four tears were visible along the length of her legs, while three easily-visible marks ran along her arms.

She wasn't sure what her back looked like, but as she bent and twisted her spine, an itchy tug signalled that there was some damage there as well.

She found, however, that the cuts and gashes in the skin beneath the clothing looked to be more than a week old, all having formed healthy scabs and itching slightly. The deepest was the vertical scratch that had travelled a brief span between her navel and ribs. That had been the one that had woken her when the dragon...

She stopped the thought, shuddering slightly. As the tremor passed, the yellow bundle suddenly stirred, and a small head popped up with eyes half lidded. It panned for a moment, as though searching for something. When its tired eyes crossed the place where she stood, it froze, giving a little yip of excitement and bolting towards her so fast that it tripped.

When the small dragon untangled its tiny claws, it leapt and scrambled up the left leg of Astrid's clothing before coming to rest on her shoulder and shoving its head so hard against the Viking's cheek that she almost lost her balance. The thrumming coming from the small reptile's chest sent a strange, warm tingling down Astrid's spine.

A loud and vibrant gurgle sounded from the black mass, and in seconds it had rolled to its feet and started to flap the dirt off of its wings.

"Goody. Now everyone's awake." Astrid's tone was only slightly sarcastic. She let her hand travel over the strange scabbed flesh on her left arm as she walked over to the Night Fury.

She noticed a few strange marks on the leathery scale; there were white lines running across the surface in a few places, but mostly a speckling of the odd scales across his back and along his wings.

As she neared, he looked up and gave her a snort.

"So what in all the hels is going on here?" Astrid dropped to her knees and sat cross legged. At once the Terror slithered off her shoulder and into her lap. Her hand absently rose to stroke its flank and scratch its eye ridges. The Terror gave an enormous thrum. "I'm a Viking. I hold to the traditions and ways of our people. My single ambition is to fight off the dragons and win peace for my village. Now what am I? I'm running around in the woods, skulking and hiding from dragons, in the company of two other dragons!"

The black dragon gave another gurgle.

"And gods damn you, stop that horrible chuckling!"

I thought we didn't know if it was laughter or not. That was just my guess.

"Oh! And then there's you; the beastly little punk that is so annoying that he continues to pester me after he's left the island! Why are you in my head?!" Astrid threw a hand up to her temple and hit her fist against the bone once.

"Ow."

Ow! Stop that! Lack of an uninjured brain is all you need! Just... calm down. None of our scaly friends are freaking out, neither should you.

Astrid took a deep breath and rested her hands on her knees, attempting to let all her concerns fall away, instead trying to focus on the positive.

"I suppose you three did help me out of that Terror pile yesterday. Was it yesterday? I don't even know how long I've been out. Whatever." Astrid glanced down at the scabs on her arms and abdomen. "I don't forget those that help me."

Without knowing why exactly she did it, she held her hand out to the beast, palm up.

The Night Fury stared at it for a while, nostrils flaring and contracting as it breathed deeply, ears flipping forward and back, pausing in the middle. Slowly, it's head began to fall closer to the open palm. Astrid simply sat still, hoping against hope that the beast wouldn't just take a length off her arm.

As the scaled face came closer, a strange warmth bloomed in her. Not in her spine this time, rather, centering in her skull. It felt soft, quiet, and overall, peaceful. With its coming, a dull ache receded from Astrid's head that she hadn't even noticed she's had.

Just as the snout was about to brush against her skin, a loud sound echoed from behind her.

All three reacted at once. The Terror shot past Astrid's side and faced the sound, while Astrid twisted onto hand and knee, drawing her blade from its sheath with her free hand. The Night Fury rose above both and opened its wings, baring teeth that seemed to appear from nowhere. All three froze.

Two golden-haired humans came tumbling through the undergrowth punching and kicking, each attempting to gain advantage over the other.

Astrid was the first to relax, and quickly realize that the two were making a dangerous racket. She sheathed her blade angrily and stepped up to the writhing mass, grabbing both heads solidly in each hand and cracking them together. They fell apart, panting and cross eyed.

"And you two!" Her voice was now angry, while maintaining low volume. The result was a guttural hiss that had both of the Twins' attention quickly. "We are hiding. Do you understand that? Hiding from the dragons in the village. Why? Because there are too many of them for us to fight! How exactly do you expect to remain unnoticed if you're shouting your heads off every damn time one of you feels slighted?!"

As she spoke, the Fury came to stand behind her and the Terror quickly climbed to her shoulder. For a moment, both seemed suitably chastised, and Astrid was about to turn away when Tuffnut suddenly jumped to his feet. He poked her dead in the chest and hissed back.

"What exactly do you think you're doing? You run off into the woods without a second glance our way after that beast," He gestured behind her to the Fury, which growled, low and warning, "then it drags you back here in the middle of the night, both of you beat to hell and starts licking your wounds!" Tuffnut's voice was building now, overlapping his caution and becoming a shout. "Who the hell do you think you are, you damned hypocrite!?"

Astrid could not help herself; she ignored the warning whimpers and nips from the Terror and the low snarl from the Night Fury, and shouted back in his face.

"I'M THE ONE DAMN VIKING ON THIS ENTIRE ISLAND THAT IS RESISTING A SIEGE! WHERE I GET MY HELP IS NO CONCERN OF..." She stopped, hearing the resounding echo of her voice travel away into the strangely silent forest. The Terror was yipping into her ear and biting it rather hard, while the Night Fury backed away and escalated its snarl to a full on growl.

Movement near Tuffnut's feet caught Astrid's eye; green-tinted fog was rolling out of the bushes from behind the Twins. Ruffnut yelped and leapt to her feet.

"ZIPPLEBACK!" Astrid's yell was drowned by roars. In the distance, what sounded like a score of draconic voices howled into the forest.

"Run!"

Astrid turned around and started sprinting while Tuffnut turned a different direction. "No, you idiot, they'll corner you at the base of the mountain!" But Ruffnut had already taken off after him.

Suddenly, Astrid's shirt gave a horrible jerk, and she found herself rising away from the ground amidst a swirl of dust and grit. When she looked up, she found the paws of the Night Fury and the sky opening up before them.

For just a moment, she was relieved. That was, until dark shapes began to appear from the clouds, diving fast and letting out distant roars.

We're surrounded.

"They found the den!"

Astrid found herself falling, though she managed to balance her landing and come up with blade drawn. Behind her, the Fury landed heavily and started to whip his head in all directions, ear plates twitching.

More fog was billowing out of the greenery now, and Astrid found that it was becoming hard to see. However, she did catch a silhouette, and it was of one that she knew all too well.

Nightmare!

"RUN!"

The command came in a voice that was so different from 'Hiccup's that for a second, Astrid thought she'd heard it aloud. The voice was deep, resonating, and deathly masculine; everything that Hiccup's voice most certainly was not.

Regardless, she knew what would happen if the Nightmares lit in Zippleback fog. Both she and the Fury turned as one and pelted away through the trees. The Terror, which Astrid just now remembered was still clinging to her shoulder, gave a squeal of fear and clung even tighter to her, going so far as to grab a stray strand of hair in its mouth.

For a few, brief seconds, Astrid thought that they were actually managing to escape.

Then came a howling rush like a gale force wind whipping through the trees, striking her face and hurtling back toward the way they'd come. The trees before her suddenly glowed a sickly orange.

The Fury stopped with a yelp and flapped his wings once, dispelling the fog around their legs before throwing his wings around the Viking, replacing the world with darkness.

A gut-wrenching roar vibrated the ground beneath Astrid's feet, sending a shudder through the leathery hide all around her. The Terror emitted a pitiful whimper.

Near the ground, she could see the orange-yellow glow of flame as it licked at the undersides of the Fury's wings, heating the inside of her cage like a furnace. He gave no sound of complaint.

As if from nowhere, pain erupted in Astrid's skull. The throbbing pound that had woken her returned with a vengeance as an image flashed before her eyes; tree's all around wreathed with flame, but directly ahead, in the far distance, a sliver of blue sky. Astrid shook her head, and the ache faded along with the image.

Once again the unfamiliar, masculine voice echoed from nowhere.

"Now."

The wings opened and heat blasted against the Viking's face, causing tears to spring in her eyes as the smell of singing hair assaulted her. Ahead, she glimpsed a sliver of blue through a gauntlet of burning pillars, and she took off. Sounds of thrashing and raging followed her as trees were smashed and bark rent by wildly swinging claws.

She didn't spare them a glance. Trees fell past and the heat lessened slightly as they went, but a direct line to safety meant brushing far too close to the inferno. Bobbing, ducking and pushing through whatever vegetation she met and traveling in as straight a line as possible, the blue sliver began to grow closer and brighter.

Suddenly, she was away from the flames! Ahead of the fire! She was almost at the forest's edge when the Nadder dropped down in front of her.

"Down."

This time, the voice was calm and reassuring. She skidded to a stop and dropped to one knee. Strange blue light lit the forest for the length of a blink, and an explosion marked its passing. When Astrid lifted her head, the Nadder was thrashing on its back. She was on her feet again in seconds and stumbling past it.

All at once, the ocean opened up before her. The sea sparkled and blazed in the light of the rising sun, and the hoards of fluffy clouds marched their way across the blue sky above. The salt in the air was so pungent that it drove the smell of burning and smoke from her nose almost instantly. Earth gave way to air as it dropped away into the cliffs that ringed much of the island of Berk. Below the waves crashed angrily against the rocky shore that defied them.

Having taken all these new sights and smells in, Astrid was forced to return her attention to the forest behind as several roaring cries echoed through the trees.

When she turned, she found an enormous column of black smoke billowing from the trees. The shapes of Nadders and Gronkles were visible, darting in and out of the blackness that interrupted the endless blue and white around it.

Looking down and through the trees, Astrid could see the sickly orange glow of burning and the rapid flashing movement of dragons as they milled about. She turned and glanced at her Night Fury.

He was also flicking his gaze between the forest and the sky, but after a moment, he turned away, emitting a strange whining sound that rolled like a snarl. He placed his tail to the forest and looked out over the ocean.

For a moment, Astrid was filled with a terrible chest constricting dread. If he left her alone, she was done for; an easy target.

Then, the Fury spread its wings and turned its head back to stare at her. She did as she thought she'd never do and threw all the pleading she could muster into her face.

The beast's right foreleg bent and dipped slightly, the right wing folding back. It jerked its head, seeming to beckon.

With short, hesitant steps, she pulled herself up onto the dragon's back, positioning her legs so that they hung in front of the beasts wings, like Hiccup had done.

"I swear, if you give so much as a hint of something that sounds like 'I told you so' I will personally kill you if I see you again."

Who? Me? You wound me, my dear.

The dragon gave a growl that sounded annoyed, and the muscles in the shoulders beneath her seat rippled.

And then, they were falling.

The wind rushing past deafened Astrid, and she found herself staring back up at the rocky cliff edge that had held her so firmly and securely mere seconds before. Now, her hair fluttered around her line of sight with lazy, flowing motions. It looked almost peaceful.

There was a leathery snap, and Astrid found the world whirling around her as gravity did its best to yank her off of her perch. Adrenaline coursed into her veins, and her legs locked tightly around the Fury's neck. It was a close call at points, but she stayed connected to the single point of stability in a maelstrom of movement and color.

It was as if a sheet had been ripped away from her face; the whirl of color condensed into an image in the blink of an eye, and Astrid found herself sitting high over the sea. Her stomach seemed to fall away as everything around her snapped into sudden focus.

The ocean stretched out forever, below and before her. The only halt to it was the horizon where it seemed to push hard against the sky as the sky pressed into it - two combatting shades of blue that had separated from one another.

Beneath her, the dragon gave a warning grunt and tilted into a turn. Astrid now looked over her right shoulder to the island of Berk. The rocky cliffs now rose above her, and the column of smoke seemed higher than ever. Also evident were the shapes that dove from the cloud and made their way directly toward them.

At least ten Nadders.

Her first instinct was to once again pull her dagger from its place at her waist. Realizing that this was useless, however, she turned and laid herself as flat as she could on the Fury's neck.

As he completed the bank, the black dragon leveled out and dipped toward the sea. Astrid's stomach did a flip and attempted to expulse its meager contents. With effort, the girl kept her past foraged meal in check and gripped even tighter to the reptile beneath her. A glance over her shoulder told her that the Nadders were diving in pursuit.

Facing back to the front, Astrid caught sight of a large massing of mist flying into the air far ahead at sea level. The wind made it difficult to see clearly, and she had to blink often, but the mist cloud seemed to be speckled and darkened by large, indistinct shapes.

Glanced higher, she was able to deduce what the shapes were.

Directly ahead was a large cluster of rock spires and towers that had been carved out of the cliff's face by the merciless ocean, obscured by mist as the sea battered it relentlessly; the perfect place to lose a pursuer - for a competent, unladen flyer.

Astrid felt her chest constrict as her already short breath became shallow and rapid.

"Please tell me he's not.."

Her words were stolen as the Fury beneath her tilted into a dive that promised to smash them against the ocean. Had Astrid had any air in her lungs, she would have screamed. As it was, she only gasp and opened her mouth wide like a fish taken from the water.

As they gained speed, the water in her eyes began to pool at the corners, only to be blown back toward her ears.

It seems to me that your life now relies on your ability to not fall off, so... hang in there.

"Shut up! I swear to the gods, just shut - !" Once again, her words were stolen as the dragon beneath her gave a beat of his wings and tilted his body to pass through a crevice between two rapidly approaching spires of stone.

The first few curves weren't so bad. None of them really tested the strength of her hands, but she found that after the first few, the rocks grew closer and closer together, seeming to reach toward her in an attempt to knock her free.

Then, the first flip came. The fog had nearly stripped her of sight, so she had no idea why the dragon had felt it necessary, but all at once, a turn changed into a hanging spin. Astrid felt the rock that passed above her pull at her hair as the sea and sky changed places. Aching pain pulsed through her hands as they constricted against the Fury's neck, but they coped with the task.

Directly after they had righted themselves, just as Astrid was about to consider herself lucky to be alive, the dragon made a turn at a nearly right angle, fitting itself through a gap that the Viking would have considered impossible. The forces straining against her grip forced it to slide part of the way off the dragon's neck, and for a single horrific moment, Astrid was sure that she was about to be snuffed out like a candle against the rocks.

While she remained alive, she found herself impacted from the front by a large amount of frigid sea water. The salt burned in her eyes, and she instantly felt all trace of warmth leave her body. As shudders began to rack her frame, Astrid closed her eyes and focussed every tiny fragment of her being on holding to the wildly-undulating reptile beneath her.

Time ceased to exist; it could have been a few seconds or hundreds of hours before Astrid opened her eyes again. What prompted her to open them, however, was unexpected. She felt something soft brush against her back, and when she finally managed to wrench open her eyelids, she beheld the silhouette of the Night Fury's head, framed by tree-filtered sunlight.

Thanks, big guy.

'Hiccup's' voice sounded just as hollow and exhausted as Astrid felt. Above her, the dragon gave an appreciative snort, before flopping down into the grass beside her with a heavy breath and a tremorous thud.

XXX

Alda

"Sloppy. Try again."

Hiccup, resting in a crouched position, nodded and closed his eyes. For a brief few seconds, there was silence, but it was shattered as the part-human threw out his hand. The piercing blue of a Rune flashed, and the boy disappeared behind an onrushing wall of fire.

Alda took one step back and brought his left wing forward, allowing the fire to flow past the protective scale. At the same time, he braced his hind legs and whipped his tail in an arc. Midway through, it connected solidly with an object, and there was a muffled "Uhf!" The old dragon turned slowly and looked down on the form of Hiccup, curled over and attempting to force air back into his lungs.

"You used far too much of your Fire for such a large and ostentatious display that screamed of diversion. You'll never get at Ito's soft spot's that way. You must maximise your natural advantages. Don't allow your power to become a crutch."

Hiccup did not reply. Instead, he ceased wheezing and pulled his foot up towards his head. Alda saw the flash of the Heart's Fire, but could not see the Rune that Hiccup had drawn on the sole of his foot. The boy repeated the process with his other foot. He then leapt to his feet and gave himself a square stance. Alda spaced his feet apart and lifted his wings slightly.

"Again."

For a moment, they simply gazed at each other. Then, the boy turned away and started to run off in an arc around the old dragon. Alda snorted and followed him with his eyes.

After Hiccup had made three laps around his teacher, the Shade sighed and stopped following him, simply listening instead to the thudding of feet against stone. Hiccup ran another lap.

"I doubt that Ito will simply sit and allow you to run circles around him. He'd have fired at you by now."

"That, dear teacher, was your mistake. Not mine."

Suddenly, the footsteps disappeared.

Alda's head snapped around to the place he'd last heard the steps. Nothing but empty blackness greeted him. He began to turn on the spot, searching for the boy, but it was far too late. A sharp pain shot through his hind right leg, followed by a brief pressure on his back and an equally sharp pain in his left wing midjoint. Both limbs spasmed inwards, and when a third pain lanced through his left foreleg, Alda's unbalanced body collapsed on the spot.

A single point of cold ice pressed into Alda's forehead. When he glanced up, he found Hiccup, grinning and holding the point of the shorter Weh blade between his teacher's eyes.

"My advantages are speed and size, correct?"

After a deep breath, Alda opened his mouth and closed his eyes.

An explosion followed.

When Alda opened his eyes, he found Hiccup, leg coverings steaming slightly, flat on his back a few winglengths away.

"If you have the opening, go for the kill. Ito will do the same, and it's you that I want to survive."

"Looks like you might be disappointed, then." Hiccup brushed the soot from what little skin he had left. "Killing is something I fled from on Berk."

Alda gave a quiet snarl and planted a paw on the semi-human's chest, forcing all of his air out and placing his head directly above the boy's face.

"You can and you will kill, for Toothless. And I'll prove it with one sojourn into your soft, little head."

Hiccup gasped as his mental barrier was swatted away like a leaf in a storm. Memories from his childhood began to race past his mind's eye faster than he could keep up. He caught little pieces of images here and there; his house; the first sheep he'd ever sheared; the other teenagers; a younger and less violent Astrid.

Abruptly, the images stopped, and Hiccup watched as a figure came falling out of the darkening sky. He'd reacted on instinct, leaping and turning the falling blade away from his beloved's unprotected neck, sending it plunging into the attacker's gut and delivering a blow to the side of its neck as it passed him in the air. He heard the dull crunching thud as Snotlout hit the Earth behind,and the taken life meant nothing to him.

Suddenly, Hiccup was able to sense the alien presence in his thoughts, a massive and methodical intelligence that took little notice of the fact that this was his head. With a sudden burst of anger, he rebelled and struck out at the alien presence. He was more than a little surprised when the consciousness fled and left him.

When Hiccup opened his eyes, he found nothing but the ceiling. When he sat up, Alda came into view, sitting at about a winglength's distance away.

"I apologize, that was incredibly discourteous of me. I simply wished to prove my point."

With a grunt, Hiccup lifted himself to a crouch.

"Do you see? This fight is not for your own life; it's for Toothless. He can't possibly afford to lose you."

The boy did not respond; he simply stayed there, breathing deeply and staring into the distance.

Alda waited.

After five minutes by human reckoning, Hiccup stood and silently paced forward. Alda felt warmth seep into his old bones as the human wrapped scaled arms around the frail and sagging scale of his neck.

"Thank you, Teacher."

As Alda thrummed in a pleased manner, the sound of clawed paws hitting stone echoed from the Hall's entrance, and both glanced up.

At the entrance-opening stood Toothless, and beside him, the smaller form of Skuru. Skuru placed his left leg before him and sunk low so that his chin nearly brushed the floor. Alda nodded his head.

Hiccup bounded immediately toward Toothless, but a sharp click from Alda's jaw brought him up short. He turned instead to Skuru and lifted his arms slightly on either side, opening his palms outward.

Skuru gave a gurgling chuckle and lifted his wings from his back, angling them downward so that the underside was hidden.

"You've taught the shrimp ancient etiquette, Teacher?" At once, Hiccup leapt onto Skuru and threw his arms around the enormous neck, using his momentum to bring the young Shade down to the ground.

"Not really, no." Now Skuru, Hiccup, and Alda were laughing while Toothless stood off to the side, shifting his weight from side to side.

As soon as he noticed his mate's discomfort, Hiccup's laughter cut off. He leapt from his place on the floor and once again stopped, this time in front of Toothless. Neither moved, and Alda watched with curiosity; such things hadn't happened to him in many decades. After a solid minute of silence between the two, Toothless broke free from his frozen posture and bowled the boy over.

Toothless quickly pinned the part-human and started to place his nose against every possible surface he could find, inhaling deeply and occasionally tasting the dark scale. Hiccup lifted a hand, placing it against the scale just beneath his dragon's eye emitting a strange croon that seemed to combine the voices of human and Shade.

Skuru snorted and proceeded to Alda's side.

"Sycle and Ryshkaa are off talking to the Three, trying to convince them that Hiccup's trustworthy." The words bore the soft whispering quality that indicated a private conversation. Alda responded in kind.

"Indeed? Perhaps I should go and ensure that my dear sibling's don't do anything rash. Watch over these two and keep them here until the time of combat comes."

As Skuru inclined his head, Alda stepped over to Hiccup and Toothless, and spoke privately to the partial human.

"Remember Hiccup, you have advantages over Ito that he will not expect. Exploit them, and don't you dare attempt to be courteous. If you see an opening, kill him. That will be his intention for you. I doubt you'll survive if he wins."

"If he wins, it will be because I died." The cold tone and iron force of the words shocked Alda slightly. He'd never heard the boy speak thus. Toothless was looking up at Alda now, head tilted.

"That, at least, is in your favor." With those words, Alda acted impulsively for the first time in a very long time and pulled from his mind a very specific and intricate Rune. It glowed with a strange golden light rather than the typical azure in his mind's eye.

Very deftly, and with skill evident of more than three hundred years of practice, Alda circumvented the passive mental barriers of the part-human and Toothless, tucking the Rune away amongst the thoughts of Hiccup's unconscious mind, removing a simpler and dimmer Rune as he did.

It was over in seconds, and Hiccup felt no more than a slight mental brush. At once, Alda felt as if he had lost something precious.

"Good luck, youngling. And Toothless - if you interfere, the entire population of Home Cave will bear down and destroy you. For Hiccup's sake, let him take care of himself."

Toothless gave a whine of protest, but he was silenced as Hiccup reached up with his neck and licked the tip of the young Shade's nose.

"I hope to see you both after Hiccup is victorious."

With that, Alda turned away and made a slow and steady trek out through the entrance, leaving Hiccup and Toothless to grapple desperately on the Hall's floor.

XXX

Ito

The thin air bore a strangely piercing chill. Ito found that he could not quite relax as he floated above the frail wisps of moisture that struggled through the frigid air.

Every time he closed his eyes, he saw her - Varra, sparkling and shimmering below, before he shook his head and banished the vision. He must focus. If the human was to answer, he could not allow himself to lapse into painful memories. This fight was the present; it had nothing to do with Sycle.

Deep breaths penetrated each and every pocket of his lungs as he strived to forget. He closed his eyes again, seeking the peaceful oblivion that his mentor had shown him so many years ago. Her face stared back.

That rest had been lost to him, and that loss doomed him to live with his anger even with the confrontation approaching.

With a sigh, he looked down; a large mass of black was gathering on the glowing snow at the base of the mountain that stood sentinel over the ice, stark against the moonlight. The moon was almost full, and the winds calm in their freezing bite. It was a good night.

Ito unlocked his wings with a click. The snap was accompanied by the slight pain that had come with age and been accented by his recent burns, and deftly, he angled into a spiraled descent, specifically choosing not to dive, so as not to mimic that long-ago fall.

As the cliff rose to meet him, a quiet bundle of voices rose to meet him. Many were excited, others confused, and a few were angry. Most of the anger was directed toward the human for creating this stir when many had speculated the time for action was close at claw. The hominid was a distraction from Home Cave's true purpose- a nuisance.

And tonight, Ito would extinguish him.

With a slight flap and a few jogging steps, he landed amongst the throng and at once, the conversation hushed as all gathered started to back away, opening space and creating a large ring of spectators.

Ito's eye flicked about as he searched for the two, for he knew that they would arrive together, but he was disappointed; the human was nowhere to be seen. While this fact was evident to him immediately, it took a few moments before the throng realized it. Ito stood alone and unchallenged.

Whispers erupted all around; if the stripling and his pet did not show, they would be expelled from Home Cave. No Shade held regard or respect for one that did not respond to a mating challenge. Ito cared not if they showed; either way, his goal was accomplished. In fact, it would be better if they did not show, as the others would cease to speak of them at once, rather than in twenty years.

Of course, Ito had no such luck.

A piercing shriek rent the night as air whistled through a Shade's laterals. Everyone including Ito jerked their heads skywards to view the spectacle, though the challenger thought he knew what he'd find.

What he saw surprised him; it was not just the stripling and his pet that dove toward the ground from on high, they led Sycle's Wing in a four-point formation.

Upon seeing them, Sycle's eyes locked with his. For a brief moment, Ito glimpsed brutality and fire, but it was extinguished by darkness as the five Shades banked away and landed quietly outside the crowd.

Ito lost sight of them then, but the whispers made it evident what was happening.

The human leapt off of his mate, though his hand never left the young Shade's neck. As each of the other four members of the Wing came to him, starting with Sycle, they touched his hand with the center of their snout while the human 'smiled' the entire time.

Ito shuddered. Those four had invested themselves in this human - there was a knowing look in each of their expressions as they touched him; they had dreamed together.

Another shiver passed through Ito's spine. That ended tonight.

The crowd parted, and a path was formed into the ring. At the end, the human walked with his hand on the stripling, and the young dragon's wing hooked around his side.

When they started forward, absolute silence fell. When they reached the edge of the ring, their crunching footsteps disappeared as well, leaving nothing but the wind dancing across the bare stone of the mountain.

"Ito. Please take this chance to reconsider."

The old dragon gave a snort and placed his right fore paw forward, lifting his still-furled wings slightly. The human took in a large breath and released it all at once. He turned and dropped to one knee, exposing his back to Ito and placing his face against the same spot on the stippling that the others had pressed against his hand.

A single, soft whimper was heard, breaking the silence as easily as Ito could break the permafrost beneath him.

In a single, fluid motion, the human rose and turned, at the same time casting off his large over-garment and throwing it into the snow, leaving his body bare but for the smooth black hide covering his legs.

He stood highlighted in the moonlight, covered in scales with patches of human skin showing here and there, defying nature in every aspect and standing unashamed of his evil. He proceeded forward, shattering the silence with each crunching step.

Ito flexed his wings, allowing them to release the aching creak that age brought and readied them for swift action.

The boy stopped a few winglengths outside of claw-strike distance. He lifted his arms.

Ito was about to fire a shot before he saw the strange blades; they absorbed light like deep ice holes and seemed to stick to the human's waist, and left arm of their own accord.

"I don't have proper claws yet, so these will have to do." As he spoke, Hiccup lifted his right hand and pulled the blade from his left arm, as the left hand reached across to grasp the handle at his right hip.

Ito let his anger rise slightly beyond his strict control, and a snarl erupted from his gut, rippling and changing as it made its way up through his throat. The boy responded by lifting the blades up and away from his scales, and letting them rest in a ready position, the shorter just below eye level and the longer near his navel, both horizontal.

"It truly makes your scales crawl, doesn't it?" The strange, dark eyes rose and met Ito's.

"It is revolting. You are revolting." A violent snarl was audible behind the human, and Ito could tell that the young Shade was protesting this insult of the creature he had chosen to pair with. "You both are."

Ito's claws scratched the ice suddenly. Hiccup noticed the abrasive sound and glanced down to his opponent's paws.

The second his opponent's eyes were away from his face, Ito expelled the gases he had been building up since the end of his roar in a single, explosive charge.

Ito watched as the human reacted a fraction of a second too late; though he had moved his torso away from the epicenter of the impact, the majority of the shot connected with his left arm, and the force of the blast whipped the boy around, causing him to stumble.

The old dragon sprang forward immediately. Bounding across the gap in moments, the Shade detected a muted blue glow from beneath the hybrid's feet before his claw rent the air the human's head had been occupying an instant ago.

Landing back on all fours, Ito beat his wings twice and pushed with his forelegs, gaining altitude faster than most any Shade in Home Cave. He rolled backwards through the air, twisting his body after tucking his wings and sending hundreds of glistening shards of ice skyward as he impacted the ice directly in front of Hiccup.

The boy was winded from the amount of Fire he had expended in such a short amount of time, and he was rubbing his wounded arm furtively. As Ito took in this image of frailty, there was a strange tugging at the corner of his thoughts, as though this scene reminded him of something.

He pushed the sensation to the side and gave the human no pause. His jaws opened, intent on capturing the mutant's head between them, but the cold flash of a black anlace deterred his fatal strike; though he may have been able to clamp down on the boy's neck in time, there was no stopping that blade. With its current course, it would sever several tendons in his neck before stopping.

Rather than continue his attack, Ito took a lunging step forward and pushed his entire head into the human's chest, tucking in his ear plates to let the blade sail over his neck as he did so. Hiccup was carried backwards by the force of the impact, and Ito immediately dropped to his stomach to avoid the swinging slash he knew would come from the second blade.

The matching weapon sliced through nothing but cold air, and Ito seized a covered leg in his jaws as he built a small pocket of gas in his throat. As the Shade applied force to his bite, tearing the coverings over the flesh to shreds, Hiccup cried out in pain. His free foot flashed blue again and curled towards his chest, then shot forward as Ito ignited the gas.

The human's leg traveled faster than should have been physically possible. The limb caught him right between the eyes, and the kick was enough to send a flash of white through his mind, accompanied by a jolt of intense pain. Ito reflexively opened his maw and scrambled to his paws, and the ignited gases flashed harmlessly in the air between the two duelists.

Three young Shades bounded through the snow. Their paws, not yet sure enough to find the firm places, fell through and buried their legs often, but they continued on, whimpering as they did toward the mountain with the howls of lupines echoing on the air.

Ito pounded the ice below him with a clawed foot, releasing a stream of fire in a curved line above him. He allowed the radiating pain from his snout to flow through his body, and the world glowed silver in the light of the moon as Hiccup backpedaled to his feet. The way the light caught the human's scales was not lost on Ito. Nor was the slight shaking of the boy's limbs and breath.

"What was that, Ito? You seemed fairly young. Scared, too. When did you become so... callous?"

Ito curled his body inward, rapidly flexing and relaxing all of his muscles as he shielded his sides with his wings. "You distract from the fight by picking at my mind because you can't hope to survive a direct confrontation. What have you but words?"

"My words are giving you pause, aren't they?"

In response, Ito roared, spitting another stream of fire in front of him and forcing the boy to move. More flames chased the human, and a third glow from the boy's feet sprang to life as the fire cornered him on all sides.

Hiccup shot dozens of feet into the air, and Ito's tensed limbs rocketed him to the space just above the hybrid. His wings flared and spun his body upside down as he neared the boy, and at the exact moment Ito saw the human's arms tense, moving to position his daggers above his head to intercept the Shade, the old dragon extended his head backwards and angled his wings, altering his course midflight.

Instead of passing above Hiccup, Ito sailed below him, and the dragon's wings snapped upwards along with his paws, trapping the boy's lower half in scales as black claws ripped the flesh from his legs.

The distressed screech of a Shade could be heard below, as well as a shuffle of snow as other Shades moved to block the race-traitor.

Ito only dragged the boy through the air for a moment before releasing him, but he held on a millisecond too long. Hiccup instinctively slashed at the wings encasing him, and the tip of the shorter blade pierced the leading edge of his left wing. The Shade screeched as the cold point ripped through his limb, carving a line through the solid scales on the very edge of his wing and causing his dark blood to splatter the ice below.

Neither one landed gracefully; Ito was unable to roll back to his stomach completely and landed on one paw, tumbling into the ice, while Hiccup landed on the small of his back, driving the wind from his lungs and causing his grip on his shorter blade to falter.

Ito's ears perked at the sound of metal hitting ice, and he thrashed his limbs, trying to right himself before Hiccup could recover. His injured wing gave him pause, and though he hoped against it, the slight delay had allowed the human to regain his footing, though not his lost weapon.

Ito's irises contracted as time crawled to a stop, allowing him to take full stock of the situation; Hiccup was just getting to his feet, and it looked as though he was still winded from his fall. The boy had seen his blade and was moving for it. Though the human was closer to the anlace by a few feet, if Ito acted instantly he could beat the mutant to it and possibly take a chunk out of an arm while he did so. At the very least, if Hiccup had the presence of mind to use his remaining blade, Ito would be able to deny the hybrid his second.

Time returned to normal very slowly. Ito had started forward, and as his paws impacted the ground in slow motion, Hiccup's eyes glanced up. The green orbs were wide with desperation in that extended moment, but even as Ito watched, that emotion shifted into something new, something Ito knew very well; determination.

The human's fingers tried to crush the handle of his blade as he changed his course. Instead of making a bid for his fallen weapon, the boy raised his dagger and made straight for Ito.

The three young dragons searched in vain for a suitable place to dig a temporary den in which to hide, but all of the snow was too loose and too dry, the moisture having fallen to lower elevations where the wolves now triumphed over a fresh kill. After an unknown amount of time, one of the younglings broke under the tension and started to sprint up to the summit, simply trying to get away from the sound. The panicked dash was answered by a rolling rumble.

Ito shook his head to clear the image and reacted instinctively, flattening his ear plates and baring his teeth, also correcting his course and charging headlong at his opponent.

Their eyes remained locked as Hiccup's blade pointed right at Ito's brow, and time sped up as they neared. The Shade's claws found purchase on the cracks in the ice below him, and as he tensed to leap forward and catch the boy's outstretched arm in his claws, an azure aura caught his attention.

Time returned to normal at the most inopportune time; as Ito leaped forward, paws extended and lips curled backwards in a snarl, Hiccup disappeared in a flash of blue.

Before he had even landed, Ito felt his mind being pierced yet again, though this attack went much deeper than any of the previous trifling attempts.

Ito quested with his mind far and wide, but his friends were nowhere to be found. It was almost as if they'd been snuffed out of existence, like flames in the wind.

After a few minutes, he realized that the air was growing thin; there wasn't much down here in his prison if ice and snow. For a brief moment, he tried to breath as little as possible, but after a minute, he surrendered to the fact that he was to become nothing more than a small piece of the frozen landscape.

Above, there was a rustling sound. Light began to show through, and his mind encountered a very strange presence.

With a final shift of the snow, moonlight lanced down into the young Shade's eyes, and he beheld a long, pointed muzzle covered in fur.

As his paws hit the ice, Ito's breath caught in his constricted throat as he felt the ice below him reach up and encircle him, trapping and condemning him to a cold, lonely death once again.

"Looks like you made some furry little friends to replace your lost ones."

Red flashed across his vision as his heart pounded in his throat. Slowly, deliberately, Ito turned towards Hiccup, locking eyes with him once more. The boy was on one knee with his empty hand flat on the ice, and the light of the moon shifted his physical features between contempt and pity rapidly.

"I can't even begin to imagine how horrible you must have felt, knowing that you were the only one to survive."

There was no amount of thought that went into Ito's next strikes. He didn't even remember the encasing ice around him shattering as he charged; he only remembered clawing, snapping, lunging at the mutant before him, trying to grab hold of the toughened flesh and rip out every piece of muscle and bone beneath it.

Every strike was danced around by the hybrid, but Ito's assault didn't stop the flood of images and taunts. The cuts and scratches the Shade received as Hiccup slashed at his openings only infused him with manic focus, and soon, the dragon stopped caring for his physical wounds, instead drawing the pain in as his blood spilled freely.

Silver moonlight fused with the orchid glow of Runes in bloodied water, illuminating black scale and white flesh - targets.

"I mean, had I been stupid enough to fool myself into thinking it was the wolves' fault for my entire life, I would feel just as angry as you right now."

He opened his mouth and let the inferno dance. Water pooled around their feet and paws and Ito's nonstop fire melted the ground, but the persistent blue shimmer beneath the human kept him just out of reach of the flames.

Ghosts of tiny Shades began to play around the edges of Ito's vision, and as they laughed and screeched in terror at some unseen threat, the sound echoing around his head, his self-control completely snapped as his mind tried not to focus on anything but dismembering and incinerating every piece of Hiccup.

Ito reached for the hybrid's left shoulder with his left paw as his fire melted the ice to the boy's right. The human evaded the flames and jumped backwards to avoid the paw, but Ito pounced forward, using the boy's momentum against him.

The Shade impacted Hiccup directly in the center of the chest with a paw, driving him to the ground and feeling his ribs strain with the force of the impact. His other paw slammed down onto the human's left wrist, forcing the blade to be released.

The fearful, green eyes of the mutant blinked rapidly as crimson blood splashed onto his features. The scent of his own blood did nothing to calm Ito's deep, erratic breathing, but Ito cared not for his loss - with nowhere left for the human to go, the dragon was guaranteed the kill. The match was his; all he had to do was bite down the little runt's neck and rip his throat out.

A pair of pathetic whimpers off to the left stopped the old Shade's attack.

The form of a young Shade danced and wavered above the pooled water in the corner of his vision, speaking and lying to him; whispering of tombs and wolves, of cascades of snow and howls of frightened hatchlings. The words were strange and indistinct, more the product of transmitted emotion than actual speech. Fear was the final thing it murmured.

Ito broke away from the sight of the terrified human below him to look directly at the Shade. He found a dragon that couldn't have been more than fifteen winters old sitting back on the water's surface, staring intently with pleading eyes.

"Where am I?" The Shade asked, looking to Ito for answers.

Something in the back of his mind flickered to life, and Ito's thoughts were formed without his approval.

"Trapped."

"In ice?"

"Yes. The wolves will dig you out."

The tiny Shade paused, glancing around at the prison only he could see.

"Don't cry. You'll live"

The youngling did not seem comforted by Ito's words . "...Where are you?" It asked tentatively.

"I am..."

Truthfully, Ito didn't know his exact surroundings; all he had been focusing on was the little Shade before him.

He tore his eyes away from the hatchling, looking out at the landscape before him. He saw a mountain ahead; a mountain that breached the sky with its height. On the snow-dusted slope of the peak, he could pick out three black shapes - three tiny Shades. They looked to be digging down for some reason that Ito could not distinguish, but it only took a moment for the howls to reach him.

The sound petrified him; it made his body feel as though the winter's claws had rooted themselves in his flesh. It made him want to hide.

Ito watched one of the tiny Shades screech and start sprinting up the mountain. As it went, it left a rolling trail of loosened snow behind it, and the trail caused tremors he could feel even now. If the Shade stopped, the tremors might as well, and just as Ito was about to call for the little ones, the same hatchling that Ito had talked to moments before, shrieked in terror.

The sound echoed down the mountainside, allowing the building trail of snow to gain speed and size, and not a second later, the entire mountain was covered in the flurry of rushing snow, carrying the three dragons with it.

Even as the burning cold of entombing ice surrounded him once more, a physical warmth blossomed at his throat.

Looking down, Ito saw a small, scaled and tearful human pinned below him, its hand right on the center of his neck. Ito felt like he was underwater once more, and thoughts and memories that were not his entered his mind. He knew his mind was freely shared with the human, but he did not care in the slightest; he was too focused on the new memories; falling peacefully through the sky with his chest against another's; his shoulder burning and his heart igniting as an axe carried him backwards; a wing around his shoulders as he walked towards Death in Shade form.

He took her from you.

The thought did not shatter the bond; it was just as intricately woven inside the ties of their minds as the memory that was visible - a Shade impacting Ito from above, then turning to fight the female that had been flying beside him. Both beings felt the sting of the frigid water that paled in comparison to the cold loss they felt in that moment.

Another memory was examined; Varra, baring her fangs, pacing in front of the attacker and rebuffing all physical and mental advances. The warm splashes of blood they both felt as her neck was snapped, came from their left ear - rather, the missing chunk of their left ear. Their hearts rang completely hollow for the first time as life drained from the female's eyes.

So you killed her.

Yes. I did.

Sycle never forgave you. You never forgave him. Or yourself.

Could you?

Never.

Then free me.

Ito's paws lifted off of the human's wrist and chest. The Shade watched as the boy slowly reached for the dropped blade, lifting it and drawing it back. Hiccup's eyes met the old dragon's once more, and Ito was surprised to find tears in them.

As the Shade closed his eyes, drawing in a breath and thinking back to that night; that night when the moon shone brightly; when the green lights danced; when Toothless took him into the sky; when Varra let him fall.

And fall he did.

The icy shard sank deep into his throat, and he let his last breath escape him with a slight, 'human' smile tugging at his lips.

"Thank you, Hiccup."

The words echoed slightly as he drifted off into the comforting darkness of peace.

XXX

Toothless

For a full minute, silence reigned amongst the gathered audience. Toothless' ears strained to find a single clue to tell him which combatant had fallen. In the center of ring, the two forms of human and Shade were a single lumpy mass on the snow. Thirty seconds more and Toothless could not bear it.

With a mighty shove, he forced his way through the wings of Ryshkaa and Sycle, bounding his way into the empty killing ring. Halfway to the center, he stopped again, this time paralyzed by fear; the Shade could not force himself to take another step until he knew which body lived.

Once again he craned his ears forward, forgetting the rest of his body even as it thundered with adrenaline.

There was a slight sniffling, followed by the slightest of dripping sounds accented by the hiss of melting snow.

With a small rustle, the smaller of the two forms pushed its way out from under the larger, and gently lay the large and lifeless head on the snow with a slow, careful motion. The snow began to darken in an expanding ring centering below Ito's throat.

After a moment on his knees, hand resting on the body's head, Hiccup turned and glanced up.

Toothless felt the tension in his body melt as he saw the tears streaming down his mate's face. He felt the barriers around Hiccup's mind dissolve like fog, and Toothless threw his thoughts forward and enveloped the sorrow, attempting to wash it away with his own happiness.

He succeeded for the most part, washing away all but one tiny ball of black sorrow that lurked in a small and reflective corner of the boy's mind. That small memory would stay there for the rest of Hiccup's life, he knew.

However, when Toothless refocused on the physical, and especially Hiccup's eyes, he found that the tears had stopped. The orbs themselves were growing hard and the corners lifted while a very quiet and distorted thrum began to resonate in the human's throat.

For a second, the Shade was perplexed at this behavior. He tapped their link once more, being bowled over by a rushing torrent of burning heat.

Toothless felt his entire body spasm before his blood began to race away from his head, and his claws began to flex involuntarily, kneading the snow. His entire being screamed to rush at Hiccup; to tear the concealing fabric from his body; to release all of the fire building within his muscles and share it with his mate. He wanted to burn and lose control, and he saw no reason to wait.

He paid no heed to the whispers that erupted around them; he dug his paws into the snow and rocketed forward, meeting Hiccup as the boy leapt, and together, they raced for the edge of the cliff.

The crowd on that side of the ring parted and allowed them to pass. Toothless was not even aware of the rest of Ito's Wing racing along behind him, snarling at those that might have followed given the chance.

When they reached the edge, their leaps were simultaneous. They were falling through the air together, and the raging sea below meant nothing.

The Shade's first instinct had been to take his mate right there on the bloodstained ice and damn the curiosity of the crowd of spectators, but he was still lucid enough for the time being to realize that solitude was infinitely better for all involved.

His second instinct was to fly until no sights, smells or sounds of foreign beings were present, but the boy falling beside him could barely stand the cold as it stood; how would he fare in prolonged contact with ice?

Without realizing it, his mind rifled through warmer, isolated locations, quickly finding one inside the bowels of Home Cave; a geothermal spring, tucked behind a narrow tunnel and hardly registered as an area of even mild significance by most residents of the networked tunnels.

With their destination decided upon and the slightest flick of a wing, Toothless was beneath Hiccup. Their tailfin sprang open as they corkscrewed into flight.

This flight was not destined to last long, however; with another flap and a rapid shift of tail and weight, the two reversed direction and flipped, diving toward the entrance to Home Cave. Under normal circumstances, Toothless would have been concerned that they'd never be precise enough to flip through the slot with enough time to close wing and drop into the cave, but his body seemed to be acting of its own accord, with utter confidence he did not consciously possess.

A few seconds later, they were falling to the icy floor and dashing up the stone passageway toward the access to the tunnels.

As the dais where the Three sat approached through the darkness, Hiccup glanced up and saw the Three outlined in silver, glaring down at them with a malevolence that was easier to disregard than Toothless could have ever imagined possible. He veered to the right, diving downwards into a very cramped tunnel that brushed against his back as it sloped down into pitch blackness. Hiccup had to stoop as he followed.

Toothless was starting to lose his ability to keep his sound pulses steady as his thoughts became murkier and hotter, and things only got more confusing as Hiccup's thoughts began to slide into his own, equally as heated and feral.

Hiccup kept stepping on his tail in the darkness, and after a moment Toothless simply lifted it and swatted, landing a light blow across the boy's side before he redoubled his speed and pulled ahead farther down the shaft.

By now, he could feel what he'd been searching for in the dark; moisture.

A cloud of stagnant steam wafted past Toothless' face along with the strong scent of minerals.

The passage abruptly widened into a massive space. The Shade allowed one pulse to illuminate it in it's entirety before he shut his mouth and cloaked their surroundings in utter blackness.

The room was round, roughly circular with several pools of water separated by bands of rock at the center which sunk low into the rock from the tunnel entrance in a steep slope. Around the rim of the room, more water trickled in through breaks in the walls and made it's way into the three central pools. The ceiling was jagged with stone spires that were far more numerous and varied in shape, yet smaller than those of the hall above. It was clear from the steam that the water was heated, probably by the same source that made the cave floors so warm.

As Toothless finished assessing their surroundings, a new scent that differed from the room's mineral and wet rock smells. washed over him It was a scent of paradox; sweet like southern flowers, yet hard and tanged, like hot metal. A contradiction - something new and unknown. Slowly, he turned towards the source of the scent, and was greeted by an overpowering wave of its heady flavor.

His nose brushed against scale.

Toothless reacted instinctively, without thought or logic. He swung his head to the side where he knew Hiccup's bare torso resided, and he heard the human fall to the side on hand and knee with a slight 'uhf'. The young Shade was up and over his mate's back, ready to thrust forward as his member enlarged, when a strange thing happened.

Toothless' dull, instinctive mind was struck as though by a hammer of thought, causing a ringing tone of command to pass through his being. He shuddered as the image of Ito lying dead before Hiccup rose unbidden in his memory, and beneath him, the boy jerked upwards, intent on claiming his right of dominance.

As Hiccup shoved, Toothless' paw slipped from its grip to the sloped floor and the rapid exchange of forceful thought prevented him from righting his balance. Both he and Hiccup tumbled bodily down the slope of the wet cave floor.

XXX

Skuru

Unlike the pair they were following, Ito's Wing made a decently careful approach on Home Cave's entrance and were moments later following the scented trail of blood into the caves.

By the time they'd made it halfway through the first Hall, Sycle seemed to have guessed where the two had gone. As the Three came into sight and their massive, baleful consciousness centered over them, Sycle made a rapid turn and pointed with a claw towards a very small opening in the gap between two stones.

"No one gets through there until Toothless comes back out."

Skuru, of course, felt obligated to ask. "What about Hiccup?"

Ryshkaa chuckled in response. "There is no doubt in my mind that should Toothless exit this tunnel, Hiccup will limp with him."

Without another word, Skuru slipped into the tunnel. About two winglengths in he found Hiccup's cloak on the floor, seemingly tossed away with reckless abandon. Skuru gurgled softly to himself before bunching the fur into a large lump with a few swipes of his paw and settling down to block the tunnel, resting his head on the fur. No Shade would be able to fit past him even if he was sleeping.

The male closed his eyes and found first the muggy and half formed thoughts of the two mates, which he narrowly avoided perceiving in detail, then he found the others as they settled down like him to concentrate. Rapidly, the other three minds began to whip tendrils of thought outward to join with his own like cords of a net, crossing and recrossing each strand as they became a mesh, thicker and thicker. Skuru reached out to assist, and after a moment, Hiccup and Toothless' mind had all but disappeared. Their thoughts were blocked, and others were blocked from seeking them.

Skuru let his muscles relax as he lapsed into a light doze, still helping to maintain the brilliantly glowing barrier around his Wingmates' mind.

XXX

Unknown

Splash.

Falling. They were falling; as they had fallen together that first night; as Varra had let them fall.

They were falling, but this space was not of air or wind or even earth - on all sides, warm, tickling darkness slid it's probing fingers over their scales.

This was a place of solitude; here, there was nothing to touch them, nothing to bother them, and nothing to threaten them. They were safely shrouded in darkness and weightlessness; after weeks of worry, training, flying, running, they were at peace; completely, totally safe.

With a flex, the larger body extended its seven limbs in as many directions as it could, hunting, questing for the smaller. When one of the wings brushed against scale, a small tremor coursed down the length of both spines.

The dragon twitched a few limbs in succession, rotating to face the direction where the foreign touch had come from.

The boy's mind managed to ever so slightly claw away from the enveloping warmth of his mate's as the Shade attempted to curl himself around the smaller figure. Hiccup stopped the larger creature dead in its path through some part will and a greater part power, gained from the knowledge of his victory; it had been he that fought, and he that had claimed the life of his adversary.

In this moment, he was powerful. He was dominant.

As he faced turned into the brace of the larger body, his hands rose and found the scaled belly.

With precision and care, Hiccup ran the points of his fingers upward between the black plates of the Shade's scales. He lingered and slowed over the portions that he knew to be especially sensitive.

The dragon let a small whine bubble from his throat, attempting to writhe away from the savory torture. Before he could move more than two muscles however, Hiccup gave a single, mental "No". The larger Shade found that he was frozen beneath the questing touch and imperial command of his lover.

When he finally reached the jaw, Toothless was shaking violently at each movement. Before Hiccup could tell him to stay still, the massive wings spasmed inward, wrapping around and holding him against the dragon's chest. A final tugging movement brought Hiccup's head level with the Shade's.

His words were barely audible, and their tone acquired a slight, hissing rasp - "Now, you're mine as well."

The water tasted heavily of minerals as Hiccup opened his mouth and let his needle-sharp teeth reach forward. With force that he could have never applied just months ago, he drove the points through the scales between Toothless' shoulder and neck.

For a second, there was utter stillness as Hiccup's mouth was flooded with the taste of his mate's blood. Simultaneously, every thought that Toothless had held before was overridden by a tidal wave of pleasure, accented with fiery pain.

Toothless' blood did not taste like blood, the taste was sweet, with the fiery tang of hot metal. As that taste suffused his body, Hiccup felt his mind relax utterly. And slowly, his identity bled away, leaving nothing more than the two of them.With a short expulsion of air, Hiccup released his hold and shoved against Toothless, breaking the Shade's hold over his torso. At the same time, the dragon flexed his spine and thrust upwards with his hindlegs, meeting Hiccup with a powerful impact that fused their bodies into a single entity.

The flames that had licked at their smaller body's heart for so long erupted outwards within their stomach and up into their spine, through the shoulder where their claim-scars lay.

Just as suddenly, Hiccup could no longer distinguish his own body. He felt himself withdraw and thrust into his mate once again, while at the same time, he pushed backward to meet his mate's advance.

Blackness and shadow surround them on all sides, and as the half-human's hips rapidly met with his dragon's, the inky darkness crept into their minds. It joined with them as a being; fused to their hearts. When it had encased the boy's entirety, his eyes shot open.

His burgeoning claws raked at the scale in front of him as his pulse pounded in his ears, and he felt his sharpened digits leave stinging marks down his breast and ribs. The fire in his stomach was fanned by the pain he felt, and his efforts redoubled, his thrusts shaking his mind and clouding it over with more viscous nothingness.

Bubbles joined and quickly departed the singular creature as his wide maw opened in a silent, forceful screech.

That screech allowed Hiccup to separate and see through his own eyes again. As the next thrust hit him, his eyes closed, and he found himself amongst his thoughts within his mind.

The clouds were no longer lazily circling the chamber's center - they spun rapidly and confusingly, impacting and splitting, reforming and changing as they whirled at high speed. Tendrils of shadow danced among the clouds, filling what had before been empty space. Occasionally, a tendril impacted a cloud, and the golden color faded into a stormy violet.

Hiccup hardly noticed this whirl of color; in the center of it all, beneath the central light, Toothless floated with wings outstretched, as though standing on something invisible. With barely a thought, the boy was beside him, wrapping his arms around and pressing his face into the powerful muscle of the dragon's neck while the spade-shaped head curled over him in a strange, horizontal embrace. He allowed his eyes to fall shut as his claim-scar seared with wonderful fire.

"There is not a soul that can challenge us now."

Toothless' voice was soothing, and what few cares that clung to the dark recesses of Hiccup's mind fluttered away and were banished. There was no longer anything that could stand against them; no sorrow, no danger, no pain.

Hiccup looked up, and was about to shift to get a look Toothless' new wound, but something caught his eye. Out in the dark nothingness of space beyond the whirl of thoughts, two figures emerged: one, a small male Shade, the other, a massive amber-eyed wolf. They sat shoulder-to-shoulder, facing outward into the darkness.

Hiccup desperately wanted to call out to them, but the wolf, as though sensing his gaze, turned her head and gave him a broad canine grin before both she and Skuru stood, bounding off into blackness.

XXX

III

Well. So much for an easy dismissal.

They've been fully integrated into the Wing. If we send them away, we'll lose Sycle too. As much as I hate to admit it, he's valuable as a leader and strategist.

There must be some way to get rid of them quietly. Ito attempted a direct approach, and was picked apart like a Khada for his trouble.

The human was mentally isolated. His victory was without outside intervention. How had he learned these skills so fast?

Alda has taught him without reservation. The human is knowledgeable about far too many subjects and he wields the fire. No normal Shade is a match for him anymore.

We could simply break his mind.

The youngling would know at once. And the Wing after, and the blasted shape-changer is always a thought away from Alda.

There are too many aliens. We cannot allow them to dilute the strength of Home Cave. They cannot be trusted.

And who brought all the aliens here?

Alda.

He is too inquisitive. He gives no thought for our safety.

He is a danger.

And we are powerless against him. He is more than our equal, and he could probably subdue the entirety of Home Cave for a short time if he needed to.

If we were to strike at one of the students-

No, he would crush us directly. What about a hostage? We could-

Silence. All of you. I have need to enter your dwelling if you would be so kind.

Each of the three old dragons' eyes snapped open. As one, they scanned the hall before them.. The temperature was unchanged, but each sensed a strange chill that resonated outward from their spines.

I wish to enter your little cave. I want the Old One dead. You will allow me to enter or, I will enter regardless. Things will go better for you, however if you let me in.

The final three words tripled in volume and seemed to batter at the mind of the Three. As one, they reached outward, beyond the cave, beyond the mountain behind, well beyond the normal mental range of a Shade.

At the very edge of their range was a single mind. When they brushed against it, all three recoiled, and the male let out a hoarse whine.

If you refuse me entrance, I'll simply kill you, along with the Old One and every other thing I find. Who knows, I might even mate the bodies afterwards. Or... yesss, I'll rip off the wings and forelegs and take you while you can't-

Silence!

We have no love for the Old One.

Take him, and leave us in peace.

XXX

Ryshkaa

For the first time in a long time, Ryshkaa was truly happy. She stood guard over her Wingmates in their most vulnerable state, with a prideful fire burning in her chest. The constant burning that had accompanied her since that horrible day now seemed natural - comfortable, even. She was secure, and nothing could stand against her.

As she bounded through the blackness of the mind's fringes, Skuru by her side, she had to resist the urge to howl her joy to the world.

Beside her, Skuru gurgled in amusement. She could not even bring herself to threaten him in her euphoric state. Things had at last settled. She was finally at peace.

The first notes weren't even audible; they rang on the outside of hearing, no more than a light pressure in the ear.

Ryshkaa was always more cautious than Skuru. She slowed, then stopped, pricking her ears.

Behind her, the glowing hum of Toothless and Hiccup was loud and powerful, but still, that strange pressure compelled her to listen.

The notes began to gain in power, passing into the range that could be heard and understood. Each tone was long, full, and perfectly pitched. They formed chords, and those chords were bound into a rhythm that was unmistakably more than simple music.

As the notes played, Ryshkaa was struck with a feeling of horrible recognition. The warming blaze in her chest went out.

The melody was becoming louder and more complex as it gained power. Voices could be heard now, whispering, barely audible, and certainly not recognizable. The words were lost amongst the notes of the song that reverberated off every single thought within Ryshkaa's mind.

"No."

The chords began to rise into a crescendo, increasing in tempo and volume until they played at an unbearable, fevered pitch. The final chord was beautifully piercing, and the whispers finally rose to a volume that could be understood, and they spoke a single word - a name.

"NO!"

Before she could stop herself, Ryshkaa let loose a howl that boiled into the darkness, adding a single note to resolve the final chord, allowing it to dim, and slowly fade into cold, featureless, silence.