Chapter 14

Toothless and Hiccup worked in the forge from the moment they arrived until dawn. Toothless had to constantly lick his scales to loosen and pull off those that were ready to fall out, putting them into a large barrel that was empty. After several hours, his tongue, and his scales, were so sore that he just had to stop. Hiccup looked over the amount of scales that Toothless shed so far and nodded at the amount in the halfway filled barrel before looking over at Toothless. Hiccup had fashioned an outline of sturdy gronkle metal for the starting design of the necklace and also built a replica, made up of the same gronkle metal and some cloth, of Azora's neck based on past observations from her body. It was hard work to create that and the outline of the necklace but it was at least something.

"Good job bud," he said as Toothless licked a barrel of water to relieve his aching and bleeding tongue. "I believe that this is just enough for the necklace. Now I'll need your flame to help out with the forging and shaping of the necklace later tonight and I have a sapphire…." He looked at the huge chest-like box that held all the gems for jewelry for wedding celebrations and sagged in disappointment when he saw that Gobber never organized the gems in the proper boxes like he has been saying he wanted to. "Somewhere in that mess…"

Toothless huffed and said, "Good luck with that. It looks like it will be a very tedious task."

Hiccup sighed and yawned as he put down his designs and stretched. "Let's get some rest bud." He said getting up. "Today is thankfully a day where most people relax including any unrest from the dragons, so we should be alright to sleep in a bit."

Toothless nodded, feeling only slightly tired before following Hiccup to his hut and, once indoors, headed straight upstairs only for them both to freeze upon opening the door and observing both Astrid and Azora in Hiccups room upon the bed, sleeping soundly. Hiccup and Toothless both backed up from the doorway and closed the bedroom door silently, went back down the stairs, and sat at the fireplace while looking at each other with blank looks.

"You saw that too right?" Hiccup asked.

"Yep." Toothless said.

"And Azora wasn't hiding in the corner away from human touch right?"

"Yep."

"We're out of a bedroom for now aren't we?"

"Most likely."

"Well," Hiccup sighed as Toothless laid down and let him rest against his body for warmth. "I guess it's the floor for us tonight bud."

"Yep."

Hiccup sighed before yawning once more. "Well then, sweet dreams Toothless."

/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Over the ocean as the sunrise slowly over the horizon, a ship sailed to a little island and on the ship was Ragnok and his crew going to do their report to the king that ruled there. Ragnok knew he would not be happy with the lost nightfury's but he also knew that he would not do anything rash in order to get them back. His king was methodical and precise when getting lost dragons back, especially ones as rare as the nightfury.

As they docked, the island around them seemed abandoned to the point of where there was no insects but as Ragnok departed the ship, a slow opening was revealed and a tall, lean figure stepped out into the the light heading towards Ragnok. "My king," Ragnok bowed slightly as the figure stopped.

The figure was that of a young man in his early thirty's, ice blond hair, dark skin, well muscled but not overly burly arms, dark lips that was settled into a stoic position, a black formal looking robe on that hid his feet and hands, on his head was a white jewel infused silver crown, and his eyes were a solid white almost purple color. "Ragnok," the king said lightly with a deep baritone voice. "You have captured dragons?"

"I did catch two dragons sire, a female and a male," Ragnok hesitated before continuing. "They unfortunately escaped due to a rescue made by a village called Berk."

The king hummed quietly. "And what were these dragons that you let get away?"

"They were nightfury's sire."

"Did they mate?"

"Yes sire."

"You are a fool." The king said brandishing a knife out of a sleeve and walking over to Ragnok lifting his head with the point of the knife. "Why should I spare you today?" The knife dug into Ragnok's neck leaving a light trail of blood.

"I know where the island is." Ragnok said confidently. "I captured those two on that island and can find it again better than anyone else that is on my crew."

The king hummed and slowly took the knife away before putting it away. "You are fortunate that you can remember places well Ragnok." The king said stepping back. "Any other who had failed this would have died in an instant."

"I understand my king."

"I want those nightfury's by my side by the end of the winter. If you cannot get both, aim for the female more than the male. She would be more useful to us than the male anyways."

"Sire?" Ragnok asked.

"The female mated due to your creation and will produce offspring by the winters end. I want those hatchlings and female by my side to be at my very command. I already have a male nightfury who has been by my and my fore-fathers side before me. He is old but still young in dragon terms and if you cannot capture that male, this male will mate her unwilling or not. I have no use of your mix to make them mate. The male has no other desire than to mate at this point so offspring will be inevitable either way."

Ragnok smirked, "Very well sire." He turned as the king opened his secret passageway and started towards the ship yelling out, "Full sail to Berk!" As he got on, he smiled. "We have a couple of furies to get to our king for profit."

The crew cheered and they set off in the direction of Berk.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Astrid woke up slowly as the sun crept into the room she was sleeping in and started to stretch her body to work out the kinks before feeling her hands hit something lightly beside her. She froze and slowly looked behind her only to see Azora sleeping peacefully on the bed next to her. Astrid remembered Stoick coming down to get a drink and upon seeing them on the hard wooden floor chatting, ordered them to go to bed and to use Hiccup's room since it was too late for Astrid to get to her home safely.

While it was nice to see Azora not cower before the Chief, she still ran almost like an arrow into Hiccup's room followed by Astrid herself. She knew she was the only one on the bed when she and Azora went to bed because Azora laid where Toothless' warming stone bed was as she fell asleep. Astrid supposed Azora climbed into bed with her for some kind of comfort and accidentally fell asleep at some point.

Astrid smiled lightly and carefully got up off the bed, not once disturbing Azora as she slept quietly, and slowly opened the bedroom door before stepping out into the hall closing the door behind her. "That was close," she whispered to herself as she went down the stairs. When she reached the landing, she saw Hiccup and Toothless lying by the fire together, both snoring as sleep conquered over them. She giggled a tiny bit and went to the kitchen pulling some onions, some carrots, and a couple of fresh fish from the counter's storage system and started on breakfast for the family.

As the fish and vegetables cooked over a small furnace by the counter, the smell started to rouse Toothless and Hiccup. "Fish…" Toothless mumbled getting up like a zombie towards the smell making Hiccup slam down onto the floor getting a groan of pain come from his lips making Astrid giggle.

"Here Toothless," she said grabbing another from the storage system and put it in front on his nose as he woke up a tiny bit more. "Here you go."

Toothless, slowly getting more and more awake, ate the fish whole and licked his chops before saying, "Thanks Astrid."

"Toothless…" Hiccup moaned in slight pain as he got up off the floor and sat at the table. "Did you have to drop my head onto the floor?"

"Yes." Toothless said staring at Hiccup. "The fish commanded me to do it."

Hiccup gave him a glare and sighed. "Useless reptile." He mumbled.

"Better believe it."

Astrid smiled at the two before taking the cooked fish and bringing them over to the table so that she and Hiccup could get a meal in. "When did you two decide to come home?" She asked making Hiccup blush in embarrassment and making Toothless look away.

"Just before dawn…" they both mumbled at the same time.

Astrid rose her eyebrows in surprise at their answer. "You two talked for that long?"

"No, we were working on something at the forge…" Hiccup said.

"What were you working on?"

Toothless and Hiccup exchanged glances as if to ask each other if they should tell her or not before Hiccup deeply sighed before whispering, "We are working on Toothless' gift for Azora to make her feel a bit better."

Astrid's eyes widened a bit and whispered back, "A gift?"

"Yeah," Toothless nodded whispering as well.

"Well what is it?" Astrid looked excited.

Hiccup took out his journal and opened it to the page with the necklace. "Oh Hiccup!" She whispered in awe. "This is the most unique necklace I've seen for a dragon."

"It was Toothless who came up with how to make it. He came up with the design for the dragon scales as the main chain and the sapphire in the middle. I am just the one who is making it for him to give to her."

Astrid looked at Toothless and smiled. "I am sure she will love it Toothless but I want you to do one thing for me when you give it to her."

Toothless tilted his head and said, "What would you want me to do?"

"I want you to give it to her when time truly shows that she is ready for such a wonderful and beautiful gift."

Toothless nodded seriously and said, "I have just the day for her."

"Oh?" Hiccup said intrigued. "Which day bud?"

"On the start of the season. I want have the chance to court her properly and show her that this time during the year is suppose to be a joy, not a nightmare."

Astrid smiled gently at Toothless and nodded. "I am sure that she will absolutely cherish it Toothless." She said.

The topic of the necklace was dropped and Hiccup quickly put his book away as they heard a door opened from upstairs and heard the stairs creak from someone coming down the stairs. Soon Azora appeared, sleepy eyed and dragging her tail behind her in total laziness. "Morning Azora!" Astrid said cheerily making Azora slightly glare at her as she headed towards the storage box with the fresh fish.

Hiccup hid a slight smirk behind his hand as Toothless turned his head away to keep from smiling. They learned early on in the household that Azora was not a morning person at times and her grumpy attitude stayed with her until her morning breakfast was done. Toothless and Hiccup once witnessed her slam Maaran onto his back and scare the living daylights into him one morning when he accidentally woke her up by stepping on her tail and since the rest of the household was awake by then, Maaran's pride had been lowered by a whole margin that day and the rest of the home learned never to disturb her until after breakfast.

As Azora ate her second fish, she looked around and sleepily noticed that Maaran was not there. "Where is papa?" She mumbled with half lidded eyes.

"He went out on a walk last night." Hiccup answered. "He hasn't come back yet but he probably will return soon."

"Mmhmm…" she agreed finishing her third fish before headed to the front door. "I'm going to find papa." She said.

Astrid hopped up out of her seat and rushed after her. "I'll come with!" She said making Azora nod lazily.

"Sure…"

As the front door closed behind the two, Toothless and Hiccup quickly ran to the kitchen, rinsed off the plates and ran out of the hut towards the forge to work on the necklace for Azora.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Azora and Astrid found Maaran and Anthia along the cliff side near the village just watching the sky. "Papa?" Azora said now fully awake.

Maaran turned to her as quick as an arrow and immediately looked away. "Azora." He said in a slight croon. "What are you doing about?"

"You never came home…" Azora said. "I was worried…"

Maaran looked at her solemnly. "I just needed time to think is all." He said.

Azora nodded and Astrid cleared her throat. "Um sir?"

Maaran turned his eyes on her as if noticing her for the first time being next to Azora. "Yes?"

"I was wondering if I would be able to keep the gift of the dragon tongue at all?" Astrid fidgeted under his gaze. "You kind of left the spell on the Chief and I and while he sort of wants the ability to go away except for dire times in need, I don't want it to go."

Azora nodded slightly at what Astrid said giving Maaran the decision he needed. "Very well." He huffed. "I assume that isn't the only reason for looking for me other than being worried?"

"No," Azora looked nervously as she sat down with Astrid staying by her side. "Are…are you mad at Toothless anymore?" She asked as her ears went back in fear of his answer and her eyes glued to her feet.

Maaran sighed as he looked at his precious daughter. He felt so ashamed on how he had acted earlier towards her and Toothless before getting the full story. "I am not mad, my daughter." Maaran said gently gesturing for Astrid and Anthia to leave them alone for a little bit.

Astrid put a hand on Azora's shoulder before she and Anthia left the cliffside. Once they were far enough away Azora started to coon and whimper in complete sadness. "I'm so sorry papa." She said not even trying to look up as she felt him move towards her.

Maaran suddenly brought Azora into a near bone crushing hug as he said, "You have nothing, absolutely nothing to be sorry for Azora." He pulled away and looked into her eyes. "I am the one who needs to be sorry. I let my emotions explode out of control back there when I shouldn't have."

Azora was in complete shock before burying her face into Maaran's neck and started pouring out her emotions and feelings through words as they stayed together on the cliff.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Hiccup and Toothless were back at the forge heating up the fire for the making of the necklace to begin. The scales were being meticulously sewed and attached together one by one onto the gronckle metal necklace frame. Hiccup had Toothless dump out the chest of gems to search for the sapphire that would be the centerpiece of the necklace while he made sure that after each finished part of the sewed up scaled, a tiny section of the gronkle metal could be cut so that once the whole necklace was done, the metal could slide out from the finished scales and become as free in movement as Azora as she soared through the air yet still tight enough to never reveal itself to others on the land as Hiccup wanted it to seem like it was part of her own scales at first glance.

Toothless was studying every blue gem there was when he came across them in the large gem pile and put the most promising ones to the side away from the bigger pile. So far he had all the light blue sapphires collected but he also color coordinated the others to make Hiccup's later job on organizing them easier. As Toothless was getting to the bottom he spotted the perfect sapphire for the necklace and pulled it out of the pile of still mostly unorganized jewels carefully with his paw.

The sapphire was as long as his claw, a beautiful blue that reminded him of the ocean, had a lighter tint of blue spread out like cracks across the whole gem yet it was smooth to the touch, and in the middle of the gem was a gleaming diamond. "Hey Hiccup," Toothless said getting his friends attention as he carefully stopped his work in the scales and came over. "I think I found the perfect one for Azora."

Hiccup carefully took the sapphire and diamond jewel from Toothless and examined it with a magnifying glass with slow precision. "It's beautiful bud," Hiccup said a bit off-put about the find, confusion marring his features as he carefully put the gem down.

"What is the matter?" Toothless asked with a slight frown on his face. "Is it too much?"

"Not at all Toothless!" Hiccup exclaimed shaking his arms and head frantically.

"Then what is the matter?"

"I just don't remember it. I've been through that box of gems over a dozen times over this year alone and I don't remember any such gem as unique as this in the pile."

"Do you want to maybe ask Gobber or your dad about it first?"

Hiccup pursed his lips looking back down at the gem. He didn't really feel anything wrong with it, nor did he feel anything worrying about putting it in the necklace but the fact that it was in the pile confused him greatly. "Yeah," Hiccup said carefully putting the gem into his vest pocket. "Let's go find Gobber and dad."

Toothless nodded and got up to follow Hiccup to the mead hall just as Astrid was arriving back into the village with Anthia on her shoulder. When she caught sight of them, she ran over and said, "Hey guys! How's the project going?"

"It's slow but progressing at a good pace enough to be completed in time for the season." Toothless said as he and Hiccup stopped to talk with her.

"We just have to ask Gobber or dad about a unique sapphire we found in the bottom of the gem chest today before adding it to the necklace." Hiccup added.

"Oh?" She asked with Anthia tilting her head. "May we see it?"

Hiccup nodded and pulled it out of his vest making Astrid gasp slightly in awe. "It's beautiful!" She said in a whisper. "It would be perfect for her!"

Anthia cleared her throat making Astrid jump a tiny bit. "I believe that Maaran actually brought that to the island as a sort of payment for the chief letting him stay on the island." She said looking at the jewel. "I think it was actually the one Azora favored in the home cave with Maaran when she first arrived to it if I recall the story correctly."

Hiccup nodded. "So I'll have to ask Maaran for permission before using it then." He said.

"Most likely."

Astrid sighed. "That may be a while before you can ask." She said. "He and Azora are on the cliffside talking things out about what happened."

Toothless gulped and looked away. It still hurt in a most painful way every time he thought about the capture and what the Draco's Beriah did to them. "That's alright." Toothless said. "Hiccup has to finish the scales first before inserting the sapphire so we have time to talk to him later if need be."

Hiccup noticed the expression Toothless had and said, "Let's get back to work then bud. We have a long work schedule ahead of us with that necklace." Toothless looked a bit happy about getting back to work and walked back into the forge. "I'll have to talk to him again I guess." Hiccup sighed as he put the jewel away and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "I'll see you around Astrid, Anthia." He then turned and walked back into the forge closing the door behind him and watched through the window as Astrid walked away with Anthia.

"Come on Hiccup," Toothless said sitting by the table that the necklace was resting on. "I want to watch as this gift gets done!"

Hiccup laughed lightly before sitting in his work chair and continuing with the careful work of sewing and attaching the scales together. "Toothless," Hiccup said seriously as he worked. "Do you want to talk anymore about the…capture?"

Toothless' expression saddened a little and he took in a deep breath before releasing it. For a minute he stayed quiet, trying to figure out how to say the words exactly with how he felt before just deciding to dive right into it. "Before the capture," he started making Hiccup slow in his work on the necklace but not stop. "I was going to properly ask Azora to become my mate in the season if not this year, next year. I knew that I could not rush her to have a love, and I didn't want it to become where just because we are the only two Aglovale Helmar's that we know of, we had to mate just to keep up our race alive. I wanted her to feel loved even if in the end it wasn't by me."

"Understandable on why too." Hiccup said careful threading the scales lining the release clip that would allow Azora to take the necklace off of her neck freely herself.

"I didn't even really think about the mating part of a relationship until Stormfly mentioned it to me. Even then I wanted to wait until Azora came to me on her own."

"And then the capture." Hiccup whispered.

Toothless nodded. "I wanted so bad to just ignore the feeling that the mix gave me and I could tell that Azora was too. It was almost intoxicating to the point of drowsiness when it first came into the room she and I were held in. But it didn't have as much of on me as it did on Azora. The pain she seemed to be in the first time and every time after the mix entered our sense of smell was almost unbearable for either of us. Her instincts actually made her try and chase me down to make me mate with her and I had no choice but to mate her in the end."

"The pain Stormfly told you of? It's that bad?"

"Unfortunately. Azora's eyes were wide with fright and so much pain as she fought almost every time before giving in. She risks her own sanity every time she does fight and during the season, I am terrified that she will fight it again and again before thinking death is better."

"That's right," Hiccup mumbled, his hands stopping for a tiny bit before resuming their tedious work. "You did mention that Stormfly gave you that warning about females who can die during the season."

"I won't let her become one of those females though." Toothless growled. "Life needs to be lived to the fullest when you live in it."

Hiccup looked at Toothless for a moment and nodded before returning to the necklace. "By the way, what do you think we should call this masterpiece?"

Toothless looked at the necklace in progress for one moment before saying, "Anuranjita. Its meaning is 'Starry Night' and its name is as beautiful as she."

Hiccup smiled and nodded at his friend. "Then Anuranjita it shall be called."