Elsewhere, far away from Berk was a fleet of ships locked in a search for the Dragons' Nest and on the leading ship of the search was Stoick the Vast, whose eyes were filled with determination.
"I can almost smell them. They're within reach. Steady the ships." He said in a low voice as the ships started to move inside a fog. "Head towards the fog."
However a few seconds after they moved in the fog, screams and shouts were heard as the dragons found them!
Meanwhile, The next day on Berk. Hiccup was back in training that morning but the arena now made to look like a maze for the candidates participating. But to both Gobber and Raven's annoyance as the watched the six teens running away from a blue Deadly Nadder, Hiccup keeps asking the one-legged, one-armed Viking about the topic of Night Furies like he had to Raven the night before.
"So," Hiccup called out to Gobber when he spotted the smith, "I noticed the book didn't have anything on Night Furies. Is there another book I could read, or a sequel, or maybe a Night Fury pamphlet-" Before he could finish, the Deadly Nadder sent a blast of magnesium fire that hit Hiccup's axe, leaving just the handle of the axe left and a startled Hiccup.
"Focus, Hiccup!" Gobber called out. "You're not even trying!" Hiccup quickly tries to decide on with way to go as the Nadder ran towards him, quickly running the right path for his life. "Today is about attack!" The Nadder jumped onto the walls inside as it searched for the teens in the maze. "Nadders are quick and light on their feet, you have to be quicker and lighter."
"AAAAAH! I'm really beginning to question your teaching methods!" Fishlegs yelled as he narrowly avoided Nadder spikes, thanks to the shield he was carrying.
Gobber ignored that and continued "Look for its blind spot. Every dragon has one. You can use it to your advantage if you can find it, hide in it, and strike!"
Ruffnut and Tuffnut tried to follow that advice when they came face to face with the blue Nadder. Unfortunately that was not working well for Ruffnut.
"Ugh! Do you ever bathe?"
"Hey, this is my blind spot! If you don't like find your own blind spot!" Tuffnut said, shoving his sister.
"How about I give you one!" She immediately knocked her helmet against his and tried to shove him off balance with her forehead.
However their argument was cut off as the Nadder, who now knew they were there and prepared their fire breath at them! They ran away, just managing to avoid the fire blast.
"Blind spot, yes," Gobber said, sounding approving, "Deaf spot-" he frowned "-not so much." Then he snickered mischievously as Hiccup dashed through the maze, spotting the spectators watching.
"So, how would one sneak up on a Night Fury?" Hiccup asked him, pausing for a second. Raven groaned in annoyance, tired of him asking so many questions about a dragon whose extremely rare to see nowadays.
"No one's ever met one and lived to tell the tale, now GO!" Gobber cried in exasperation as the Nadder appeared again, shooting a blast of fire at Hiccup that he just managed to escape from.
"He'll actually get himself killed today if he doesn't stop with his questions already." Raven moaned desperation.
"Hiccup? Esch, he's always been like that." Gobber replied, having heard her. "You're the lass with Hiccup yesterday. Raven, right?"
"Yeah. That's me." The hooded girl answered him, facing Gobber properly.
"Do you mind looking after the lad for me?" Gobber asked loud enough for only the two of them to hear. "He doesn't have any friends and not many care for him. Of course it was a shock to see yah with him, with his status as Hiccup The Useless, but it would do him good if he had at least one friend by his side when he needs it. Yah must have done something to get his interest." Raven blushed slightly at the sentence.
"He helped me when we first met." Raven replied honestly. "While others would instantly interrogate me for being here, Hiccup was so kind to me and didn't ask me where I was from nor why I came here. I guess we just had a lot in common. I just want to repay the favor, I don't think I made that big of an impression."
"Well, you did something." Gobber chuckled. "I've never seen him that happy since he was a wee babe. And that's saying something. All you usually get from Hiccup are frowns and his sarcastic comments, but he's talented. I can tell you that, most of the time, I don't know what's going on in his head."
"I didn't realize…"
"You've only known each other for two days, lass. It takes a little while to understand Hiccup and I know he deserves a friend like you. You treat him like your equal instead of teasing him because of his appearance or reputation. I can't be the only one he can hold an actual conversation with or be there when he needs to. That's why I ask this favor out of you." Raven's eyes widened in realization before she moved her hood slightly to allow Gobber to see her face completely, shocking him in the process because of her appearance.
"I promise. I'll take care of him, and mark my word for it. Gobber the Belch." The Berkian chuckled at her.
"Ah like yah, lass!" Raven giggles slightly at this as she hides her face again.
Hiccup notices this slightly in confusion as he ran by before asking more questions about Night Furies. He needed to know as much as possible but the words Raven had told him last night was still lingering in his mind, how could their perspective of things be so different from each other. Was she hiding something? Hiccup haven't known her for long but she was possibly his only friend and could understand him in other ways than one, they had some sort of connection but what? His thoughts were interrupted as he ran away from the Nadder once again when the whole group ran past him, the Nadder tipping some of the wooden walls as it was chasing Astrid. Hiccup didn't have time to dodge as he fell to the stone floor, Astrid's axe stuck in his wooden shield and the Viking girl tangled with him. Astrid was staring at him with a disgusted and poisonous look as she tried to untangle herself from the heir. The twins laughing at the scene to Hiccup's dismay.
"Love on the battlefield." Tuffnut said while snickering.
"She can do better," His twin replied with a grin.
Seeing as the Nadder recovering and Astrid finally managing to untangle herself, quickly tried to get her axe out from the shield to no use and pried the shield off Hiccup's arm in time to smack it in the Nadder's head hard. The Nadder shook its head before walking away. Astrid was breathing hard with both uncertainty and superiority.
"Good job, Astrid!" Gobber cheered, as he walked in to herd the dragon back to its cage. Raven standing by the entrance with a solemn look, worried about her friend on the ground.
"Is this some kind of a joke to you?!" Astrid yelled at Hiccup, who was curled up still on the ground. "Our parents' war is about to become ours. Figure out whose side you're on." With that, she left with the other teens and left Hiccup on the ground. After they left, the small Viking picked himself up before noticing the sad look on Raven's shadowed face and walked over to her.
"You okay?" The hooded girl asked worried. Hiccup looked down on the ground, feeling like he had embarrassed himself with what happened.
"I just… need to be alone for a while." Hiccup replied.
"But-!"
"Raven, please." Hiccup cut her off before walking away, thinking about what she had said the night before, "To us, Night Furies are creatures of mystery and freedom. Dragons who master the night sky, blacking out the many stars as it fly pass. No one has seen one up close to actually know how it looks like but I know they're born to be in those skies." 'I need to know more about that dragon. Maybe, what Raven said had some truth after all? I just have to earn its trust if I want to know the truth.'
Hiccup quickly sneaked into the armory, snatching a shield for protection before getting a fish from the storehouse. All that was left to do was to go to the cove and see if the dragon rather eat the fish than him to prove that dragons maybe aren't as everyone had said they are.
Raven arrived to the cove moments later, noticing the shield stuck in between the rock walls. The young sorceress had spent most of the day looking for Nevermore, wondering where the purple dragon was at. She wanted to know if her dragon was okay after the last two days apart from each other, Raven wanted to make sure that the Vikings hadn't found her since Nevermore was a unique dragon this far from their home. However, once Raven entered the beautiful cove, she met the sight of Hiccup trying to interact with a black scaled dragon at the back of the small place.
Her curiosity took over her, Raven hid slightly behind a rock as she observed Hiccup and the Night Fury interact with each other, subconsciously taking off her cloak as it hung over her arm.
Hiccup have had his curiosity taken over him as he was determined to touch the Night Fury but after being vaunt when it was trying to sleep on the ground, he walked away and sat down on a small stone nearby and tried to think of a way to interact with the dragon. After a while, the small Viking took up a stick nearby and started drawing the Night Fury's head. As he drew, a big shadow came over him and Hiccup tried not to look up as he continued drawing but it wasn't long before the black dragon walked away and Hiccup heard a tree getting snapped off.
Raven walked out of her hiding spot in fascination of what she was seeing and Hiccup looked at the Night Fury with amazement. The dragon used the small tree to draw on the ground around Hiccup, the Night Fury stopped slightly look at the human before continuing with his drawing while smacking Hiccup with the branches at one point. The Night Fury nodded with pride at the swirly portrait of the human. Hiccup stood up to inspect the drawing but accidentally stepped on one of the lines, causing the Night Fury to growl at him but as soon as he lifted his foot up, the Night Fury purred like cat. Being slightly curious, Hiccup stepped on the line a few more times and got the same reaction every time until he walked over the line, gaining an even louder purr from it. Smiling at it, Hiccup struggled to navigate his feet in between the lines without breaking eye contact with the ground. Hiccup suddenly hit his back on a big mass and felt warm air on his head. He looked up to see that he was right by the Night Fury, who was looking at him, and reached up his hand to touch the dragon but it growled slightly. With only one attempt left, Hiccup stretched out his hand, closing his eyes and turned his head away. He trusted the Night Fury not to eat him, hopefully. Then he felt something wet and scaley in his head and breathed out before looking at the black dragon in amazement before it moved its head away.
The Night Fury then sniffed in the air and started growling at something behind Hiccup, he turned around to see Raven standing a few meters away from them and he instantly panicked. How long had she been here? How much did she see?
"R-R-Raven?!" Hiccup exclaimed in shock and fear as the strange girl took a few more slow steps towards them. "I-I can ex-explain…"
"He's beautiful…" Raven breathed out in amazement as she slowly placed her cloak on the ground, seemingly unfazed by the Night Fury's growling much to Hiccup's shock. "Easy there, boy. Easy." Raven said in a calm tone as she slowly side stepped to the dragon with her hands out. The Night Fury slowly calmed down at this in confusion. "I'm not here to hurt you. Smell carefully at me." The dragon did just that before tilting his head in even more confusion. "You can smell her. Can't you?"
"Wow." Hiccup let out in amazement at the girl. Not only did she seem unfazed that the Night Fury would attack her at any moment but also managed to calm it down in just a few seconds.
"I'm a friend, just like Hiccup." Raven got down on one knee with one hand up in the same way as Hiccup did earlier and the Night Fury pressed his snout in her hand, causing the young sorceress to smile even bigger. "There we go!" Raven giggled as she started to scratch the Night Fury's hide a bit as she inspected the dragon's appearance. "You're such a beautiful dragon. The stories were true about you." That's when the purple eyed girl noticed his missing tail fin. "Poor thing. You won't be able to fly anymore without your tail." Hiccup shook his head to stop staring at her.
"You knew how to gain its trust from the start, didn't you?" Hiccup asked and Raven looked at him in shame.
"Yes, I do. However, it's a he. Dragons doesn't like to be called like they're objects or beasts. They have feelings too, you know." Raven replied as the Night Fury walked over to the Viking's side. "And he seems to be very fond of you now that you've gained his trust. A friend of mine is very kind to any type of creature, even dragons. She taught me some good things about animals and beasts being misunderstood."
"You managed to calm the Night Fury down so fast when I spent almost the whole afternoon trying to gain his trust but you did it in seconds. You knew exactly how to handle a dragon without force to tame it, where did you learn all of that?"
Raven started to become very nervous and started to consider if she really should tell him about Nevermore. After some time of slight silence, a cheerful growl was heard in the cove and Raven recognized it instantly. Out of the big tree in the cove, came Nevermore walking out and when the black haired girl saw the medium sized dragon come to them.
"What kind of dragon is that?" Hiccup wondered.
"Nevermore!" Raven exclaimed in happiness as she ran over to her dragon, who started to lick her owner in happiness before they hugged each other, finally reunited again. "I'm so glad you're okay, girl. I got so worried about you." Nevermore purred in delight as her owner scratched her skin before turning. "I owe you a real explanation, don't I?"
"Yeah, you do. What's going on here?" Hiccup asked really confused over the whole situation.
"Well… I'm a dragon rider from outside the archipelago and this sweetheart here is Nevermore, my closest friend. I ran away from home on top of Nevermore and we happened to land here before I was out of resources to continue."
"Okay, but how can you ride her? Isn't Nevermore too small to carry a person." Raven giggled as she stood up and glanced at the dragon.
"Show him your little talent, girl." Nevermore chirped in agreement. She shone a light blue with misty swirls around her as she quickly changed her size into her full grown self with her reins and saddle on. The dragon rider could only laugh at Hiccup's shocked with his mouth wide opened and the Night Fury chuckled himself at the small human's reaction to Nevermore's unique gift.
"This isn't logically possible!"
"For magical dragons it is. Nevermore's a Avalonian Mythtail, a species of magical dragons that all have their own unique talents besides breathing out fire and her talent is changing her own size to any she wants to have at any time." By that time, the Night Fury and Nevermore started to play together around the cove as she turned into the size of a cat and started flying around, doing a game of tag with each other. "They only live on my island though and usually don't leave their home territory under any circumstances."
The two sat down on the ground to talk now that Hiccup had calmed down after the many surprises, "Now I get it why you're so drawn to dragons, you own one yourself."
"Yeah, now you know one of my secrets after I accidentally saw yours."
"So, you won't tell my village about this?" Raven shook her head immediately.
"Of course not! I would endanger not only my dragon but also the only species that harborns the element of night magic within them that are almost gone."
"Night magic? Nothing you say makes since." Raven sighed in guilt as she uncomfortably rubbed her arm.
"Hiccup. I'm really different from other people because of the things I was born with." Raven summoned a purple flame in her hand and Hiccup gasped quietly as he saw the girl's sad face. This explained everything to him why Raven was so secretive and mysterious to him, she was able to use magic but he didn't think she was witch like many had told him about those who can perform magic. "I was born with dark magic, thanks to my mom. But I have little control over it, so when I use it to do good things, it'll only end badly."
"I know how it feels." Raven arched an eyebrow at this. "I always wanted to become a real Viking to prove to everyone I can be one of them. I mean look at me. I'm far from being one, so I try making up for it with my inventions but none of them seem to work except the one that shot the Night Fury down three days ago. All they are good for is destroying the village more than the dragons more times than I can count. They call me Hiccup the Useless because of that." Hiccup chuckled a bit as Raven looked at him sympathy. "I'm just glad they haven't seen my birthmark."
"Birthmark?" The Viking outcast nodded.
"Yeah, I have this strange, black birthmark on my arm as long as I can remember." Raven suddenly took his left arm unexpectedly.
"Let me see it!" The multi colored haired girl rolled down his sleeve to see the Night Fury like mark near his wrist and strokes it gently. "I'm not… the only one…"
"Wait, you have one too?" Raven quickly nodded as she let go and took off her bracelet, showing him her own birthmark.
"Legends say that those born with marks like these have a strong connection to dragons of any one race, having the soul and blood as the dragons. They were known as Dragonborns and had made their own tribe hundreds of years ago but suddenly vanished. I don't know much other than that but I always thought I was alone as a Dragonborn and now that I know I'm not alone anymore, makes me happy."
Hiccup smiled at the mention of not being alone, "Wow. That makes you a Dragonborn of the Avalonian Mythtail." His smile disappeared when he realised something and started to feel a bit guilty over his actions. "And I'm a Dragonborn of the Night Furies, which I shot down." Raven placed a hand on his shoulder as he looked at the ground.
"Hey. At least you've learnt of your mistake and you've earned his forgiveness, now it's just to get to know your new friend." Hiccup looked up at her in disbelief. "I can teach you how I bonded with Nevermore and that way, you two get to know each other. You've already created a bond with each other."
"I-I'll try. Everything is just overwhelming."
Suddenly, both the Night Fury and Nevermore crashed into them, causing the two young teens to land on top of each other. When they realized their positions, they both blushed as they scrambled away from each other before laughing at the awkward moment with the dragons making their own laugh over what happened. They saw that it was almost night time when they finally stopped laughing, realizing that they had spent almost the whole afternoon at the cove.
"We should go back. Gobber has a campfire tonight that I need to be on." Hiccup explained as he stood up. Raven nodded as she followed suit and went to pick up her cloak to put it on before turning to the dragon.
"Look after Nevermore for me, okay." Raven told the Night Fury. "We'll be back soon." The black dragon nodded in agreement before they left the two dragons at the cove.
"..and with one twist, he took my hand and swallowed it whole."
The class was listening to Gobber's story as he had gathered the teens around a campfire by one of the catapults, except Hiccup. After he and Raven got back from the forest, the multi colored haired girl got back to his house as she was sure that Hiccup needed to take everything in and that was what he was doing as he listened to Gobber's story and paid no mind as he cooked his fish on a stick.
"And I saw the look on his face: I was delicious!" Gobber said, sounding proud of how he tasted. "He must have passed the word, because it wasn't a month later before another one took my leg." All teens, except Hiccup, gasped as he stuck out his right leg, which was replaced by the wooden pegleg.
"Isn't it weird to think that your hand was inside a dragon? Like if your mind was still in control of it, you could have killed the dragon from the inside by crushing its heart or something." Fishlegs said eagerly which made everyone stare at him like he was insane.
"Ooh," Snotlout fumed, staring at his chicken with a murderous gaze. "I swear I am so ANGRY right now! I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot! I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight…" He pointed viciously at his face. "With my face!" Gobber shook his head at this.
"It's the wings and tails you really want." The blacksmith said as he broke off a chicken wing from his chicken. "If it can't fly, it can't get away. A downed dragon is a dead dragon."
Hiccup looked up in realization at this. The Night Fury was missing a tailfin and Raven had even pointed out that the dragon couldn't fly anymore. He needed to do something, especially if he truly is the Dragonborn of the Night Furies. He sneaked off as the group continued to talk but heard someone behind him for a second, however, he didn't pay attention to who it was as Hiccup quickly walked down the wooden steps. He needed to get Raven and go to the forge. Hiccup ran as fast as he could to his house and opened the door, where his friend was reading a book before he came.
"What's wrong, Hiccup?" Raven asked worried at the serious look on his face.
"I know how to fix Toothless's tail." Hiccup replied as he gestured for Raven to follow him. The sorceress quickly followed him without her cloak as it was quite dark outside and they got to Hiccup's room in the forge.
"Hiccup. What's going on?" Raven asked confused as she looked around the small room of sketches and contraptions.
"It's because of me that Toothless lost his tailfin, because I tried to be something I'm not." Hiccup explained as he opened his journal on the desk onto the page with the sketch of the Night Fury. "'A downed dragon is a dead dragon'. Toothless won't survive on his own in that cove if he can't fly."
"Toothless?" Raven asked with a raised eyebrow.
"The Night Fury's name. It just fit because of two things." Hiccup replied with a small smile. "One: That was the first thing I said to him face to face. Second: He has retractable teeth."
"That's reasonable." The dragon rider replied as she got to the Viking's side. "So, what's the plan on getting Toothless back in the sky? I can't get it back with my magic."
"I'm planning on making a prosthetic as replacement to the one he lost," Hiccup took a coal pencil and drew back the left tail fin on the sketch, "I kinda know his measurements after you observed him. After spending the afternoon with you guys, made me realize that dragons might be misunderstood and I want to know the truth about them. Just like you did."
"If you want my help, then I'm at your disposal." Hiccup smiled bigger this time.
"I know we haven't known each other for long but… you've been so kind to me in these past few days than my own dad in the fifthteen years of my life! Thank you, it's great to actually have a friend for once."
"You don't have to thank me. I just know that you 'don't judge a book by its cover'." The two chuckled at the statement which had been so true under these past few days together. "Besides, I know how it is to be an outcast and having a strained relationship with a parent." Hiccup nodded at this, feeling as their relationship had gotten stronger after just this afternoon. They had revealed their secrets to each other and such similar lives that it's hard to believe they were from two different worlds. "Ready when you are. What do you want me to do?"
"Do you know how to work with leather?"
"No, but I'm a fast learner."
"Alright. Let's get this started."
The two Dragonborns quickly got to work as they spent the entire night making the tail fin prosthetic for Toothless after sketching it and Hiccup's intelect. When sunrise started to come, they were finally finished with it but since they needed rest from spending the entire night to create it and Hiccup didn't have any dragon training during the day. They walked back to the house to rest and the next day, they would see if it works.