A/N: Sorry about the break, I don't get much time to get on here cause I've been playing Kingdom Hearts with that fazed, mouth-open, addicted look on my face as I soared through the game. That's a pretty awesome game, any of those who have PS2s', you should go and buy Kingdom Hearts! :D
I've been trying to spread it around school.
(plus I had to sort this thing out…) *guilty look* :3 And BTW: Those of you who caught what Nightflight said and thought it was a little odd… ;)
(~**~) (~**~) (~**~) (~**~)
Watching Mistyeyes and Hiccup soaring away into the sky, Toothless allowed himself a small breath of relief, closing his eyes as he did so. Knees nearly shaky with relief, Toothless almost had forgotten that he was not the only one in the clearing. The realization made him perk up, blinking rapidly as he swung back down to look at Nightflight. The dragoness didn't even look that disappointed about the fact that they had gotten away from her, in fact, she actually looked a little excited by the prospect. Her green eyes were bright, her ears flicking back and forth as she looked up calmly at Toothless.
Baring his teeth angrily, his voice came out in a low snarl. "I could kill you right now." He growled harshly, looking down almost cross-eyed at her. He wasn't even putting a lot of weight on her, and yet she did nothing. Was she waiting for him to waver? He shook himself mentally, that wouldn't happen.
"But you wont." She declared, a hint of amusement hidden in her voice. Toothless twitched angrily, but did not reply as he looked down at her. "After all, that's not the way you've been taught, isn't that right?" He stiffened angrily as she said this, Nightflight smiling as she noticed this. "So if you're just going to end up letting me go, you might as well do it before you lose any other shred of dignity you have left, hmm?"
"Who says I lost my dignity?" Toothless snapped irritably, glaring at her. His tail lashed back and forth, flicking short-temperedly. "It's you who should be ashamed of yourself! Do you even know what you're doing right now, or are you just doing it to entertain yourself?" The words ended in a snarl, Toothless's lip curling in disgust.
"Of course I know what I'm doing." She quipped, suddenly lashing forward and flipping Toothless off of her skillfully. The larger dragon's breath whooshed out of him as he flew to the side, not expecting the sudden attack. Puffing for breath, he pushed himself up weakly to stand, one eye closed in pain as he winced. Nightflight stood, stretching herself dramatically as she took to sitting down on the grass. She eyed Toothless with an almost playful smirk, eyes glimmering. "You could still change your mind, you know." She said, her voice rising and falling as if in a tune. "You could just be with me and choose NOT to die."
"Fat chance." Toothless snapped. "It's not like you didn't give me that chance before. And look what happened when I agreed?" He waved his tail behind him, pointing to the fire raging behind him. He thought that it looked a little better by now, the fire shrinking rather than growing. But maybe it was just his imagination. "I know better than I did last time, I'm staying with Hiccup. And there's nothing you can do to change that."
Nightflight hummed under her breath, expression losing a little of its amusement. She flicked her tail dismissively, opening her mouth to say something else to the dragon. But she was cut off as a loud roar echoed across the island, the female raising her head and blinking slowly as the call echoed across the island. "Hmm." She huffed, looking back at Toothless. "I'm afraid this will have to wait until we meet again." She said, her expression a little disappointed. Getting to her feet, she turned, wings extending out, black against the charred foliage around them.
Toothless suddenly jerked, lurching forward and throwing himself at her. The female gasped, falling face-forward to the ground with a thump. Dipping his head down slightly, Toothless glared at the back of her head, digging his claws into her skin tightly. "You said something about Hiccup when we first found you!" He shouted, even though he was right on top of her. "What did you mean by that?" His ears flicked as he waited for her answer, but all she did was laugh slightly under her breath. Gritting his teeth together, he shouted again, louder this time. "TELL ME!"
Yet another roar echoed around the island, Toothless being caught off-guard as he raised his head to look behind him. His grip slackened with surprise, eyes widening as he realized that the fire was dimming into a smoky cloud raising into the sky. Nightflight took that chance, grunting as she shot up to her feet, Toothless falling to the side with a startled yell. Without missing a beat, Nightflight shot into the sky, the wind catching her wings as she shot up into the sky at rocket speed.
Looking up with a startled expression, Toothless narrowed his eyes. "You really wanna see who's faster, Nightflight?" He growled, determination entering his eyes as he crouched to the ground. His wings shot out at his sides, the dragon bunching his muscles in anticipation. "Let's race." He shot into the sky, as fast as Nightflight if not faster.
Humid, muggy wind slapped back into his face, nearly choking him as he forced himself to breath it in. Wings beating a mile a minute, the dragon made quick progress of gaining air, hovering in one place as he went as high as he could get. Whirling around clumsily, Toothless growled with frustration as tried to see through the pitch dark sky. He couldn't see any of the other Night Furies, much less a sign of Nightflight, the thought making him curse himself for not being faster. If only-
"Oh, so you want to race now, then?" Nightflight's voice made his head whip back up, wings still beating hard as he looked around quickly. Heart beating in his chest, heart in his throat, Toothless searched the sky around him, bracing himself for a fight. But disappointment and confusion swamped him as he found nothing. No, wait…THERE! Nightflight was flying a few yards away from him, the only visible thing right now her eyes, which gleamed in the dark light. "Well, we'll have to pick it up another time, I really am late for something. Very important."
His mixed thoughts were the soul thing that kept Toothless still long enough for Nightflight to whirl around and leave. And when he finally realized that she had left, he was confused on where she went, causing him to remain at stand-still even longer. "Darn!" He cursed loudly, spitting a small fireball angrily to the right. "How will I get to her if she keeps confusing me like that?" He growled.
"You could start by looking where you shoot." Toothless started at the sound of a voice, turning and spotted Mistyeyes as she swooped closer. The dragon seemed to be troubled by something, her blue eyes slightly clouded as she stopped in front of him. Wildly, Toothless immediately thought of Hiccup, but relief washed over him as he spotted the boy hanging onto Mistyeyes's back like he had left them.
"Right…sorry." He said, giving her a small smile. Mistyeyes merely blinked, looking him up and down. She still didn't know what that was, he'd forgotten. "How is everything?" He asked, stealing a glance down at the island. The fire was dwindling by now, they would need more dragons to help put out the fire soon enough. That or lose more buildings for no reason.
"Oh, yeah." She said quickly, giving a slow nod. "Everything's fine…" She trailed off thoughtfully, blinking at Toothless curiously. It looked like she wanted to ask him something. "Hey, I have a question." There it was. Toothless stared at her expectantly, head tilted to the side slightly. Hiccup was watching intently from where he hung onto Mistyeyes. "Have you ever met somebody who you talked to?" Toothless looked at her strangely, Mistyeyes blinking rapidly as she looked at him. When he failed to respond, she smiled, an actually pretty smile for somebody who was just trying it.
"…I'm talking to you right now, Mistyeyes." He said slowly, a little impatiently.
"…" An awkward silence. "…right…" Mistyeyes finally got out.
More silence.
"Let's go." Toothless said slowly, still looking at her weird as he turned. She looked all for doing something, immediately turning and shooting away from him, almost a little bit too fast. Hiccup looked jarred from where he sat, letting out a small yelp as he clung on tighter. Shaking himself, Toothless followed suit, rocketing after her as he swooped down.
Nearing the island, Toothless's heart suddenly flipped over in his chest. It had taken him a long time to even think about trusting her, and now she was going to parade into the village with Hiccup riding on her back? He opened his mouth to call out to her, but winced as he already heard the shouts rising up from the village. He could see the fingers pointing up, signaling out the other Night Fury that was flying alongside Toothless. He could foresee the anger that Stoick would bestow upon all three of them soon enough.
"Brace yourself." He murmured, glancing over at Mistyeyes.
She nodded tensely, nervousness lingering in her eyes as she didn't look at him.
Landing on the charred grass, Toothless winced as the whole of the village immediately rushed over to them, feet throwing up ash around them as they raced forward. "I'm right here." He said lowly, trying to be comforting as he looked over at her. She threw him a look, almost defiant. He could almost hear her saying: Don't push it. It almost made him laugh, Toothless hardening at the last moment as he took a step away from her. He looked away stubbornly. Not again.
Hiccup slid off of Mistyeyes, falling to his feet rather clumsily as he staggered somewhat. "It's okay! It's okay!" He yelled quickly, throwing his hands out to the others as they crowded around him. A few held weapons, most of them looked too worn out to do anything but look at the dragon with tired-looking eyes. "She's a friend, she helped me out in the forest!"
"And you know this time, do you?" Hiccup winced visibly as Stoick's voice thundered across the clearing to him. The chief pushed his way closer through the crowd, looking down at Hiccup with narrowed eyes. "The last time you told us this, it didn't end well. It still isn't ending well!" Straightening self-consciously, Hiccup looked around the village with one eye closed. It wasn't like saying it was his fault, it was Toothless's fault too. The dragon snorted, pushing past Mistyeyes and standing beside Hiccup comfortingly.
"I'm sure about it this time!" Hiccup pressed. "I know for certain. She helped me and Toothless out in the forest, I got attacked by the same female that was here before. She was there and she fought her off before anything bad happened to me." Stoick looked over at Mistyeyes with a glare, obviously not trusting of the creature. She met his gaze clearly. "Remember how the female was mean at first? This one is nice, she let me ride her and everything quicker than Toothless did!"
"That's not the point, son." Stoick said tensely.
"Then what is?" Hiccup asked, exasperated. "She helped me, why can't she just-"
"She's different." Hiccup turned back, surprise lighting his face as he saw Astrid. The blonde had stepped up, her chin raised slightly. "She ran into me and she didn't even try and attack me. She's different than the other dragons, I'm sure of it."
"And I'll believe a bunch of Vikings in training over-"
"Does he always yell like this?" Mistyeyes asked, looking the chief up and down.
"Sometimes he goes so long, I wonder when he'll pass out." Toothless said, looking over at her, eyes sparkling with mischief. Mistyeyes chuckled, looking over at Toothless with sparkling eyes.
Hiccup snorted with laughter where he stood. Toothless blinked, looking over at him, looking a little lost.
Stoick looked over at his son with a stern look, Hiccup snapping his mouth shut as he tried to stifle his laughter. But looking from Astrid to Hiccup, the chief turned back to Mistyeyes, looking her up and down. It seemed as if everyone was sizing each other up. Thinking fast, Toothless nudged the other female in the side, giving her a low smile and jerking his head in the direction of Stoick. Getting the message pretty fast, Mistyeyes smiled at the chief a little too largely, ears flicking back and forth. Stoick seemed surprised by the action. Galloping forward, Mistyeyes approached Stoick a little warily, tilting her head to the side as she sniffed the chief. The people watching didn't move, waiting to see if what the two said was true. Leaning forward, Mistyeyes licked Stoick's cheek wetly, purring loudly as she smiled once more.
Stoick seemed stunned, looking at the Night Fury like it was an alien thing to him. She lashed her tail happily back and forth, eyes bright. A few of the smaller girls in the crowd threw out yells, soon brought up by others. "She's so cute!" "It's a girl Night Fury!" "I wanna ride her, does she go as fast as Toothless?" "We can find out!" "Can we keep her?" The remains of the village went unnoticed for the time being, the children's worn out looks brightened as they looked at her, and looking around, both Hiccup and Toothless smiled. It was the way it needed to stay.
Stoick looked around at the village, hardly able to say no with this many people throwing large: Aww's at the female. Looking a little disgruntled, he turned to Hiccup. "Are you sure this time?" He asked sternly, narrowing his eyes. "This is your last chance, Hiccup. We do NOT need any more trouble than we already have."
Looking over at Mistyeyes, he smiled widely and nodded. He seemed to be asking her a question.
Puffing out her chest, Mistyeyes's eyes gleamed. "My name is Mistyeyes." She declared.