"You could be helping me, you know?"

If she wasn't so annoyed with him right now, Sunflower would've snorted in amusement. So instead, she 'hmmf'ed' and turned her head a little snobbishly, smirking slightly at the aggravated huff she heard.

Sunflower wasn't normally so bloodthirsty (okay, maybe she was), but over the last day she's had she was more than sure she was going to be banished from any dragon colony for mass murder. The last few hours, to be precise, have been the most agonizing moments of her entire life. Sure, her damaged wing was one of the reasons, as well as being stuck on a human filled island with no escape unless she suddenly grew gills and webby water fins and swam her way free, but the thing that was driving her to kill was him.

The Night Fury.

The dragon was a nuisance and nagging pain if her rear end that was going to stay there until she left or decided to actually murder him; which she was seriously considering and willing to do. Despite all that has happened and the numerous threats that spilled from the dragoness, the annoying creature had taken to Sunflower like a fish to water; claiming that since she was from the Fury species, different kind of not, that was all that matter. Now he seemed to think she'd help him just because they were from the same dragon race, or so she assumed. Though she was sure he silently wished she was a Night Fury from how he would stare at her longingly with this sickeningly sad faraway expression.

"What was that? Couldn't quite hear you," Came her snarky reply.

The Night Fury huffed, sending her a glare, as he tried to jump up on a rock once more, only to fall. Growling in agitation, he flicked his tail. "Help. Me. Get. Out of HERE!"

"Hmm... I don't think I will. I quite enjoy this spot," The female snarked with a devil glare. "Why are you even trying to escape? You're obviously not going to get anywhere far with that tail of yours."

She was referring to his left tail fin that no longer exists. It was an injury that he acquired after the crash after it got sliced by a sharp branch or something like that. Luckily for him, Sunflower's wing had taken most of the damage during the collision, resulting in only one of his tail fin's being sliced off instead of them both. And because of where it was injured, he was now at a ninety-nine percent chance of not being able to fly again.

The one percent only being there if he had someone willing to help him.

Sunflower couldn't heal it either and unless he was a lizard, there was absolutely no way his tailfin would grow back. Maybe if they found the detached limb she could maybe reattach it to his tail, but there's no telling if it would even work. Plus, she didn't have the best experience with healing a dragon's wing webbing on tail/body fins. Simple cuts or stab wounds — depending on their depth — she could heal, but the rest...

"Fine! Don't help! I can do it on my own!" The Night Fury snarled, breaking her from her thoughts, as he sent her another glare jumping once again. "I'm not going to wait for another human to come across this cove where they can easily kill us! We're practically sitting birds here." Jumping up the side of the cliff, he let out a growl when the rocks beneath him gave away, sending back to the ground. "If I could just get out of here- I could figure a way to fly, I flew when I left the human, I can do it again."

"... Males," Sunflower exhaled with a roll of her eyes, stretching out under the sunlight. "You wouldn't get far, you barely got that far earlier. You're just lucky the collision with that tree didn't cut off both of you tail fins or you'd be in more trouble than you are now," She paused for a moment, scowling. "You're welcome, by the way. My wing took most of the impact."

Despite her obvious distaste towards him, she still felt bad for him. He would never be able to fly ever again, cursed to be ground for the rest of his life; however long that may be. She might act like a cold stubborn rodent, but she wasn't completely heartless. She wouldn't wish this on her enemies... Well, actually, her enemies she would. But she didn't exactly consider the male a major threat — just a major nuisance that she wanted to kill.

The Night Fury froze as he glanced down at his tail, mixed feelings filling him. He didn't want to exactly face the truth that he might not be able to fly again. He knew deep down that he wouldn't but he refused to believe it.

"You didn't have to do that, it's not like it helped anything in the end," Stretching his wings he padded over to another small ledge and hopped onto it; he'd try finding a way out later. At the female's annoyed growl, he cleared his throat. "... But thank you anyway. Just don't do something like that again."

"Oh, believe me, I won't."

It was silent for a moment as the two just glanced around, Sunflower swore that this was more awkward than the time Orion tried to serenade Lightglider under a full moon a couple of months back.

Lightglider...

Sunflower missed the younger dragoness. For as long as she could remember, Lightglider has been her only friend for years before Glacier and Floral and Stormrazor, a Storm Fury, came into the picture. Heck! She even missed Orion, and that was saying something since she hated his guts. She did have a few other semi-friends among the Furies, but she didn't really bother with any of them as most of the only surviving Furies left were all in the darker category; meaning they weren't living in areas that got a lot of sunlight and since Sun was literally in her name, both of them, she wasn't partially found of the idea of being in an area with no sun or lights in general.

Glancing at the Night Fury, she tilted her head just observing him. 'How is he alive? Mom and all the scrolls left said that his kind was wiped out by the humans decades ago... Unless there's more out there than we think. Is there a hidden island like ours out there? Nah... he seemed too shocked when he first saw me. I wonder what his backstory is... No. Once you learn, you'll start to like him!'

"Don't you want to get out of here?"

"Huh?" she looked up as he asked his question.

Rolling his eyes, the Night Fury asked again. "Don't you want out of here? You aren't acting like, you know, most dragons would in a situation like this. Most would be beating themselves to a bloody mess to try and figure a way to escape."

"Of course I want out of here!" She snapped, a stab of fury filling her for the hundredth time in the last four hours. "I want out of here more than you could possibly want! I have friends to protect as well as keeping an island safe from idiots like you and the humans!" Flicking her tail, she clawed the ground. "It's all thanks to that human too! Because of him, I can't protect my home from any danger! They must think I abandoned them!"

"Then help me escape."

She scowled with a huff, "And go where? In case you haven't noticed, I wouldn't get far with this wing and you definitely won't be getting far."

"You can still try."

"No!"

"Why are you so stubborn?!" He bellowed, sending a blast at a rock which shattered it. "Fine. Can you at least tell me your name?"

Green eyes snapped towards the male in suspicion as he asked the question. Narrowing them, she took a moment to decide if she should answer or not. "Why do you want to know?"

Rolling his eyes at her look, he let out a sigh. Were all Fury females like this? "I have to call you something, don't I? Other than "the female" or "you"."

Inhaling she thought of what he said. He was right... sadly. It was getting annoying, to be honest. She's heard more "you's" and "female" in the last few hours since they've been stuck in this cove then she had at home, and it was making her scales tighten in annoyance. But she wasn't sure she should give him her name. After all, it's not like she's gonna be spending the rest of her life with him. Actually, she was pretty sure this would be the only time she'd see him. Looking at him, she decided to keep up her stubborn facade, turning her head slightly. "Why should I tell you mine? I don't even know yours."

No shit, the male rolled his eyes. That was the point of asking the stubborn female her name, she'd tell him hers and in return, he'd tell her his. Looks like he'd have to do the introductions first...

It was quiet for a while, only the sound of a loud sigh could be heard. Grinning mentally in victory, Sunflower stood up and stretched her wings - or rather, wing, as her left was still sore. The light from the sun hit them, reflecting off of the glittering textures and creating an almost fiery appearance. She loved how it gained that look, the star looking scales adding an almost stary look to it which was something that drew a lot of attention from other dragons.

Because Sun Furies were related to Moon Furies more so then any of the others, they both shared the star-like scales on their wings and legs - though the Sun Fury females had the stars around their eyes, and in different colors, whereas the Moons colorings were only in silvers or of silvery-blue and purples.

With one more stretch, she looked away from her wings and started to move off her rock. Might as well take a nap, right?

"... Nightstriker."

She froze, slowly looking at the male who turned his head to the side. His pride being forced down as she slowly tilted her head, "What?"

"My name is Nightstriker," He answered just as slowly.

He was like a claw in the face with having to answer the stubborn female when she should be the one answering him without any challenges; what happened to the mysterious hard to get male that didn't answer to anyone?

She narrowed her eyes for a moment, "... Fitting, I suppose. I would've thought it was Toothless or Airhead or something like that."

He glared slightly at that, especially the last one, he knew it was a clear insult towards him. He watched as her eyes narrowed in on his mouth where he had his teeth retracted, something he did often unless he went hunting or was facing danger like earlier. Popping them back out he gave her an expecting look. "Aren't you going to tell you name?"

"Really?" She asked with a scoff. "You thought I'd really give you, a strange dragon that I don't even know, my name?"

They were plunged into another round of silence.

The Night Fury, Nightstriker, couldn't help but feel angry, annoyed and a little saddened as the female turned and continued her descent from her rocky ledge. Did she really hate him that much? He hadn't really done anything to her to deserve this kind of treatment, other than tackling her and the two getting caught... and injured.

Figures, the first Fury he meets hates his guts for something he didn't know would happen.

Nightstriker stood up shaking his wings out. He might as well continue to escape, right? That's the only thing to do. Besides, he didn't want to run into any more humans, the sooner he could leave, the better. Sunflower let out a sigh as she watched him walk away. Maybe she was a little hard on him... Despite this all being his fault and all, she could lighten up. He was stuck here as much as she was, after all. The nicest thing she supposed she could do is give him her name...

"Hey," She called after him, making him halt. "My name is Sunflower."

With that she ran off to her cave, leaving the male with a small smile before he went back to trying to escape.

Sunflower smelled him before he appeared. The fleshy but fire and metal mixed scent of the young human from earlier. Nightstriker didn't seem to notice as he was busy still trying to scale the slick rocky walls of the cove that trapped the two of them from freedom. He seemed to be taking a break for a moment, going silent as he tried to think of a way to claw up the walls.

Birds chirping could be heard in that silence, making Sunflower's stomach growl. She was hungry, anything sounded good to eat right now. But at the smell of the human, she shoved her hunger down and peeked out of her cave, peering around as she sniffed the air.

"This was stupid," The boy's voice sighed.

Looking in the direction it came from, she spotted the scrawny boy at one of the smaller entrances looking down at something on the ground, before he crouched to pick it up.

"What's he doing here?" She muttered to herself. "Stupid human. I thought he would've run away and alerted the adults to us being here." Scoffing she watched as he picked up what looked to be a black stone of sorts, she couldn't tell. "Wonder why he's back..."

She was curious. Very curious. She's never seen a human before, has heard of them from the Elders but never seen one. Perhaps that was why she wasn't charging out and attacking in a fit of feral rage, she wanted to see observe the creature that her kind detested so much and since he didn't look the least bit threatening - not like the bigger ones - she decided to refrain from scaring him at the moment.

Her thoughts were cut short as Nightstriker blast straight up the wall with a roar directly in front of the boy who recoiled back with a small yelp. The dragon beating his wings roughly as he struggled to climb. With a shuttered growl, he fell away, beating his wings a few times before gliding to the ground in utter annoyance. Sunflower winced as he dropped like a rock, his shredded fin doing nothing to aid him in flying.

Looking back at the human, she watched curiously as a look of wonder and excitement crossed his face. Like he just discovered some rare gem hidden in a dead land of sorts. She tilted her head even more as she watched him jump down from the opening and onto a large platform of a moss-covered rock, eyes focused on the black dragon. Though she did take note of his eyes wandering around the isolated cover, in what she assumed a search for her.

She could see some of his excitement drops before he returned focus to the male Fury.

She'd deny it whole heartily later, but she actually felt a little bad for the human. He wanted to see both of them, yet here she was hiding. But her brain was screaming and belittling her for even feeling a shard of sympathy for the creature. He was a human! Natural born enemy of the dragon race. He was the one who shot her down! One of the very reasons her wing was busted up. She shouldn't feel anything other than hatred.

'He tried to kill you!' One part of her brain yelled. 'End the miserable fleshy now while no one is around!' A small growl left her at that, that seemed like a good idea. But then the other part of her brain began reasoning. 'Don't kill him, he let you go. He could've brought the other humans with him, but he didn't. Besides... he's the human version of one of our hatchlings.'

The growl died down some as Sunflower considered this. Perhaps this is why she wasn't blowing the two-legged flesh stick to pieces. The human was merely a dragon hatchling, something that was secretly a weak spot for the Sun Fury. Weak, defenseless, misguided without any true knowledge of trouble until they cause it or get placed in a tough situation.

'But it's not a dragon,' The voice snarled again. 'When have you become so soft? Just kill the fleshy and get it over with! Do it before he kills you and possibly all the others!'

Letting out a hiss, Sunflower narrowed her eyes in on the boy; the voice was right. What's to stop him from killing them? What's to stop him from finding her island and killing all the others? No, she would protect them. She wouldn't become soft just because of the stupid hatchling human. He proved what he was capable of when he shot her and the Night Fury down. If he took down two feared Furies with ease, surely he could find her home and do the same to the others.

She wouldn't let him. She couldn't.

As the boy stared transfixed on Nightstriker, watching the dragon basically flop around exhausted and frustrated after yet another failed attempt at flying, Sunflower slithered out of her cave as quickly as possible. Swiftly dodging large roots and rocks as she stealthily made her way around the mini-lake. Her eyes focused on her target.

Putting her climbing skills to good use, she silently started making her way up, only pausing momentarily as the boy pulled some weird square thing and stick out of his vest, moving the stick across the page and behind each stroke a part of the image of the Night Fury appeared. Sunflower tilted her head slightly in curiosity, in silent wonder of the strange magic thingy.

Letting out a huff she shook her head and began her 'hunt' once again. Maybe she should eat him, she was hungry enough that even all those feathery birds looked just about delicious right now. Getting right up behind him, she stood silently as he looked back up at the Night Fury who shot a blast at the ground.

"Why don't you just... fly away?" He wondered out loud.

"Good question," Sunflower smirked evilly though she got distracted once again as the boy noticed something and began making adjustments to his... er, picture. He used his sleeve to erase the picture dragon's left tailfin, leaving it a blurred out mess to indicate it being gone. Nightstriker flew into the air once more before making a sharp turn where he clumsily lands in a cloud of dust.

The jumping of a fish and the snapping plunge of his head into the water reminded Sunflower of her own stomach and mission.

Letting out a small his she stood on her hind legs and flared out her wings, making the boy freeze at the sudden large shadow that engulfed him. Letting out a shuttered gasp, he mistakingly dropped his magic drawing stick which caught the attention of the other dragon. Mentally cursing himself, he turned with a nervous laugh, almost freezing at the sight of the looming beauty.

Her eyes seemed to glow as the sun silhouetted her body in a glowing shadow, her red and orange scales almost fire like in appearance as the light bounced off the glimmering effects that adorned her body gloriously. If it weren't for her slitted green eyes and sharp pearly white teeth on full display with the spine-chilling growl, Hiccup would've sat and admired her.

"U-uh... Heh," He gulped. "N-nice d-dragon..."

Her growls stopped for a moment as she gave him an almost deadpanned expression before she let out a loud roar similar the Night Fury's only more elegant, or rather, softer; but terrifying all the same.

"Ahhhh!" Letting out a scream of his own, Hiccup dived to the side as she lunged forward and bit down at the area had been. Snapping her head towards the boy, she watched as he scaled the rocks in a hurry, dodging her tail as she smashed it towards him. Letting out a hiss, she lunged again, fire a bolt of fire that just barely missed his head as he disappeared from view through the small opening that was sadly too small for her to fully fit through.

Climbing up, she gazed through the opening, snarling in triumph as the boy stumbled in his room. She stayed there for a few minutes before she turned her head and looked down, eyes meeting those of the unimpressed Night Fury.

"Really?" He questioned.

Sunflower, being the innocent soul she was, blinked in mock confusion. "What?"

Hiccup ran as fast as he could, terrified at the thought of turning around and seeing a pissed red Night Fury crashing after. He had no idea that she had been there, having been so focused on the black Night Fury and automatically assuming she was gone since he had seen her in his momentary search. Dear gods, that was scary! Had the female, he assumed she was a female, been there the whole time? How was she so silent until then? Why was she angry at him? Hiccup hadn't done anything to her, or at least, not that he could recall.

'You idiot! You shot her down! That's why she's angry!' He mentally screamed.

No. That couldn't have been it, otherwise, she would've incinerated him on their first meeting instead of healing him - something he was still baffled about. That, or she would've let the male end him. He was sure she had stopped the male Night Fury from killing him as he disappeared after her sharp hiss like whistle.

It was kind of amusing in a mental sort of way with how the roles seemed to switch between the two dragons. First, it was the male who tried to kill him while the female was all calm, now it was the female who tried to kill him while the male was calm - or calm when having seen him at least.

Maybe it's just in their nature. Maybe they took turns in killing and being vicious if there wasn't any true danger around. Or maybe she was just having a bad day. Could dragons get those? Hiccup wasn't sure, it made him curious though. Maybe it was just a Night Fury thing... if only he knew more.

Then his mind drifted off to the black dragon's missing tailfin.

He was positive that it wasn't like that the night he shot them down. He hadn't been able to see that well of course, nor did he get a good view the other day, but he was sure it was supposed to have two instead of one. The red one's tail wasn't like that, he got a good view of it when it nearly smacked him in the face.

Maybe Gobber would know...

It was breaching dark when the boy reached the Great Hall soaking wet, a storm had blown in by the time he reached the village. Taking a small breath, he pushed the large doors open in a hurry where he spotted the other recruits sat in the dim lighting at a table, listening to Gobber speak. It was the typical five rookies of the village; Ruffnut and Tuffnut sat together on one side with Astrid by them, on the other side was Snotlout and Fishlegs. Then off to the corner was someone almost as much as a nobody as Hiccup himself; his only friend, Asta.

Asta was a bit smaller than Astrid but had a similar build. She had bangs and the typical Berkian braid. She wore a black sleeveless top and a dark grey leather skirt with a pair of black pants and grey boots. On her left shoulder was a metal armor shoulder pad of sorts, and by her side, a long sword that her uncle gave her. Like Astrid, she had unique features; Bright sparkling green eyes that rivaled the greenest of trees and red hair that looked close to the color of fire itself.

With her hair came a temper that often got her into trouble; she was snarky and sarcastic, often coming across as careless or childish. Hiccup determined long ago it was just her way of showing her emotions. Due to her temper, she could be a little, er, impulsive. Which led to many things like jumping in front a Monstrous Nightmare with nothing but a frying pan, or taking a swan dive off a 30-foot cliff because she saw a giant fish, or maybe even taking a metal boat out onto the sea in the middle of a storm with tons of metal because she was pissed off at her parents shooting down her idea on what would happen with the metal and person if lightning were to hit it.

... That one didn't turn out too well, she had the scar above her right eyebrow to prove it.

Point is, nobody wanted to be around someone like that, except for Hiccup himself. The two were polar opposites yet the same, maybe that's why they got on rather well.

"Alright. Where did Astrid go wrong in the ring today?" He heard Gobber ask his 'students'.

"I mistimed my summersault dive. It was sloppy. It threw off my reverse tumble," Astrid automatically chimed in as if disgusted with herself though Asta was certain she was just fishing for attention.

Groans and rolls from the others had Hiccup slowing down a bit, eyes lingering on his longtime crush who seemed troubled with her performance earlier. He didn't know why, it was perfect, the way she reacted with little to no fear. Everything she did was perfection.

"Yeah. We noticed," Ruffnut muttered sarcastically.

"No, no, you were great. That was so 'Astrid'," Snotlout says, waving his hand. Like many of the island boys, he had a crush on her as well. He beamed slightly as a small smile formed on her lips.

Asta, who had been watching, rolled her eyes and dramatically dragged a finger across her neck like a danger. Eyes rolling into the back of her head as she flopped forward face first into the table in front of her. Eyes rolled again as the group of teens spared her a look, use to her acting this way.

Oh. And she was dramatic. Sarcastic, snarky and dramatic, how did Hiccup become friends with her again?

"She's right, you have to be tough on yourselves," Gobber says, nodding towards the pretty blonde. The creak of the floor had everyone glancing over, electing group sigh from the main five, a raised eyebrow from Gobber and a dramatic 'SAVE ME!' look from Asta. She really did hate anything that had to do with school. Hiccup smiled sheepishly, wincing at the creak as he noticed all eyes on him. Letting out a sigh, Gobber sent him a glare, "Where did Hiccup go wrong?"

Seriously? Did he have to ask that?

"He showed up." Ruffnut offered as Hiccup grabbed a plate and went to sit.

Snotlout glared slightly and scooted over, blocking the bench from the scrawny boy. No way was he letting the Village Screwup sit beside him. He might get jinxed with bad luck if he did.

Hiccup let a blank expression fall over his features at this action, he should've known he wouldn't be welcomed to sit with them. Walking past Snotlout he grabbed a cup and moved to the next table over with an eye roll, feeling a little better when Asta grabbed her plate and moved over to sit with him.

"He didn't get eaten," Tuffnut grinned.

"He's never where he should be," Astrid spat with venom, glaring at the boy.

Ouch. That... that hurt. A lot.

"Oh, be quiet Princess Twinkle Toes. He has just as much right to be here as you and I," Asta snarked with a glare, getting one returned from the blonde.

"Thank you, Astrid," Gobber says bonking the twins on their heads and backs sending the redhead a stern look while walking over towards the end of their table, near the two friends. "You need to live and breath this stuff," Pulling out a book he placed it down. "The Dragon Manual."

'Cool~' Asta cooed as she glanced over. She had been wanting to get her hands on that.

"Everything we know about every dragon we know of," As soon as he said that a rumble of thunder rang across the sky and the rain poured down harder. "No attacks tonight. Study up. With that he leaves, leaving the teens to stare at the book like it was a dead sheep or something, well, Fishlegs looked excited.

"Wait. You mean read?" Tuffnut jumped in a horrified way.

"Why we're still alive?" His twin questioned in the same tone.

"It's not going to kill you. Oh, wait, on second thought, please do read, It'll be a miracle sent from Thor himself" Hiccup kicked Asta in the shins, sending her a look as she let out a small 'oww'. Luckily the twins didn't hear her.

"Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about?" Snotlout banged his fist on the table, obviously not pleased.

"Asta..." Hiccup warned quietly when she opened her mouth, holding up her hands she shrunk down. Fishlegs was quick to share his excitement with his friends. "Oh! I've read it like, seven times. There's this water dragon that sprays boiling water at your face. And there's this other one that buries itself for like a week..."

The teens stare with buggy eyed expressions as Fishlegs goes on in his ramble, sharing the knowledge he thought his friends should have. Tuffnut reached out a snapped his hand close, stopping the other boy mid-rant. "Yeah, that sounds great. There was a chance I was going to read that..."

"... but now..." Ruffnut shrugs in disinterest, lips pressing in a thin line.

"I know!" Snotlout stood up. "You guys read, I'll go kill stuff."

Knocking the bench over, Fishlegs followed after him and the twins after them, leaving Astrid with the two people she despised the most. Hiccup, now interested in the book and that fact that his crush was sitting right there without her friends, got up and walked over. "So I guess we'll share-"

"-Read it," Astrid pushed the book over in annoyance, springing up to follow her friends.

Hiccup felt a small bubble of panic as he watched her go, thinking of something else to say. "All mine then. Wow, so okay. I'll see you-" The door slammed closed, making him trail off with a sigh. "... tomorrow."

Asta frowned as she watched her friend slump in defeat. As much as she hated little miss Princess Perfect, she wished the blonde would show some interest in her friend. She wanted to see Hiccup happy, and if having Blondie Scrumptious showing an actual interest in Hiccup would make him happy, then she'd except it. Try to except Astrid. No matter how much she hated the other girl...

Seeing Hiccup happy and safe was the number one thing on her list, it was why she tried to fuck up so much. To take all the negative attention off of him so everyone would leave him alone and maybe start seeing him as someone who wasn't a screwup.

"She's uh, still upset about the Gronckle thing," Asta started after a minute. "Maybe she'll listen to you tomorrow."

Hiccup tilted his head slightly, staring at the book as another clap of thunder rang out. "... Yeah. Maybe."

Reaching out her hand and opening her mouth she hesitated before deciding against it. Clearing her throat she walked over, gave her friend a quick hug, before heading towards the doors. "I'll see you tomorrow. Don't stay up too late."

"Yeah," He sighed. "Goodnight."

"...Night." With one last look, she ran out. Leaving Hiccup to a night of studying. The boy, after coming out of his mini-depression, would soon discover that the Night Fury was a dragon of great danger and mystery; something never recorded or had anyone to live through an encounter to tell the tale...

Until now.

And he discovered two.

Author's Note: Please, no flames. I apologize for any grammatical errors... For those curious about Asta's appearance, just search up Félicie Millinerfrom Ballerina (or Leap!)