The male stood on legs that seemed destined to buckle under him. His right wing hung limp at his side, the Nadder spikes slicing gashes when Shadowfire threw him. Shadowfire moved, placing himself in between the male and Hiccup. Hiccup stared over the hunched form of the Western Dragon at the male.
"Do you yield and accept the judgement placed upon you? Do take the offer to leave, alive? Or do you wish to die here?"
The male glared at Hiccup. [Your words mean nothing. You mean nothing.]
[Stand with Lady Alpha,] Hiccup heard Toothless whisper seconds before Toothless leapt off the hill and move to stand beside Shadowfire. [Protect your sister.]
Shadowfire grunted something in the Old Tongue and shifted back. Hiccup watched the Western Dragon jump up. Toothless' sister moved away, coming around to stand on Hiccup's right instead of his left. Shadowfire then stood beside Astrid and Moondust, his wing extended over both. Gyda joined them, standing with Moondust between her and Astrid.
[So, you fight after I'm dishonorably attacked?]
Hiccup spun back at the male's question. His eyes narrowed but Toothless answered the male before Hiccup could.
[My alpha declared you guilty of violating our most scared laws. You are nothing and your claims of a dishonorable treatment are nothing as well, worm.]
[I will enjoy gutting you, mate-stealer.]
[Moondust has placed herself under my protection and I will defend her honor, but my alpha has given you a sliver of a chance to live. I suggest you take it for it will not be the nest dragons who kill you. I will.]
The male lowered his head. Mouth opened, blue-purple light began building in his throat. Hiccup went to step forward. Toothless hissed. A bolt of plasma shot into the male's throat, bigger than the one Toothless used on the Terror but vastly smaller than the one used to kill the Red Death. The gas in the male's mouth imploded. The male yowled as a small fire licked at the lining in his mouth. Hiccup, despite his anger at the male, winced.
The male coughed. [You coward,] the male hissed, voice sounding as if someone had driven tiny sharp rocks across it.
Toothless spun. The Gronckle iron connecting rod keeping his tailfin intact cracked against the male's skull. The male dropped. Toothless completed his spin as the male stood. The legs were wobblier than before.
[Do you take the life my alpha offers?] Toothless demanded, [or do you die here like the worthless lizard you are?]
[I will kill you. Then I will kill that creature you bow to. I will then take my mate home and my nest will ravage this one.]
[Alpha?] Toothless questioned, eyes never leaving the male.
"He has made his choice," Hiccup said. "Kill him."
Toothless' sensing lobes flatten. He pounced. The male shifted right. Toothless spun. Gronckle iron slammed a sensing lobe. The male screeched. Toothless' jaws snapped. The male yowled. The male's jaws snapped. Toothless snarled. Both dragons rose upon their hindlegs, forelegs clawing and slashing. The male managed to slice wing membrane. Toothless yowled. Shoved. The male tumbled backwards. Toothless stalked forward. Spat plasma rapidly. The light cleared. Toothless had the male's muzzle clamped between bared teeth. One paw crushed wing bone. The other held claws driven into the thinner throat scales. Thin enough dragon claws found grip. Hiccup heard the male squealing. Saw paws slashing harmless against air. Toothless lifted his head. Jerked his neck sharply. The squeals silenced and the paw slashing stilled. Toothless opened his mouth. The now lifeless male slumped, his head twisted and neck broken.
Toothless stumbled back. Hiccup saw the damage the fight had done.
"Gothi!"
The elder stepped into the plaza. Hiccup went to run. Shadowfire gently picked him up and placed him at the bottom of the hill. Hiccup spared a glance up, tipped his head. He ran to his brother. Toothless cooed but slumped to the ground. Blood dripped from gashes in the right wing and from claw slices along chin and throat. A smaller, lower left sensing lobe bled from a bite wound. Gothi arrived a moment later. Hiccup blinked as her hands glowed the same green color Gyda's did when she used the minor healing spell she knew.
"You're the other mage Gyda spoke of?"
Gothi favored him with a look he needed no translation for. She then turned her attention back to Toothless.
"So that be what happens when me son exiles a dragon?" Stoick asked, looking up at Lorekeeper.
The Nightmare Elder sighed. [No. That is what happens when the one who is exiled fights the alpha's judgement.]
[It did not help that the male dishonored the female Wind-shrieker, and continued to do so,] the head Changewing guard said, appearing on the side of the Great Hall and climbing down to join Stoick and Lorekeeper. [Each dragon has customs they follow, especially when it comes to staring a courtship. The male took a kind gesture from a nest-mate and violated the female's honor by claiming more than she offered.]
"The wing thing?" Stoick asked.
[To a Wind-shrieker,] Frostfire said, joining them and sitting upon Stoick's shoulder, [covering another with their wing is something reserved only for flock-mates. My brother and I adopted this custom as our uncle was a Wind-shrieker and taught it to us. When the male covered Moondust with his wing, without first courting her properly, he violated her honor. Eh, Mama said for humans it was the same as a male forcing a female he was not in a mate-hood with to act as if she was.]
"I see," Stoick said, slowly.
He was both grateful the male Night Fury was dead and annoyed he had not been allowed to kill the worm. Stoick despised men who took from a woman what was not theirs in the gods' eyes. It was a belief that put him at odds with some Viking tribes that came to Things at times. Stoick never cared what those fools thought and made sure his tribe and his island did not suffer such acts. The last time had been long before Hiccup and the other teens had been born. The man did not survive, much like this piece of refuse now stinking up Stoick's plaza.
"And when Moondust tucked herself under Toothless' wing?" he asked in an effort to keep his temper.
The fool dragon was dead. Toothless had seen to that. Stoick planned to speak to his son about a feast held in Toothless' honor for that deed. They had a feast for Hoark after he killed Katica's attacker after all.
[She placed herself under his protection,] Frostfire said. [Her honor became his to defend over the claim my brother and I have as our mother declared Moondust part of our flock.]
"Be they courtin' now?" Stoick asked.
If all of his sons were courting and finding their future, Stoick planned to offer many sacrifices in praise to all the gods. All three of his boys deserved happiness. Stoick was also an honest man and willing to admit, if only to himself, that he wanted grandchildren. Seeing all those hatchlings had only reinforced that. He knew that with Toothless' newly found younglings he had grandchildren, but he wanted more and wanted to be there at the beginning with them. He had failed Hiccup and he had not been able to see Toothless' younglings as hatchlings. He would not fail any other grandchildren the gods were willing to give him.
[Eh,] Frostfire began, [it can lead to that but Toothless has to initiate the courting. I'm not sure he will right now. I think he fears he will remind Moondust of that male and the dishonor the male showed her.]
"So ye sayin' me son be as stubborn as a Viking?" Stoick asked.
[Uh, yeah.]
"That's fine. I be knowin' how ta deal with stubborn Vikings."
Kirika: Well, I think they agree with you.