Chapter Fifteen: To Accept, and Push On
It was the next morning after the battle; and during the night, as the Vikings and dragons were asleep, two more Night Furies had arrived on Outcast Island. They tracked down their son's scent to one of the largest human dwellings, and as much as they wanted to open the door to comfort their son, they decided that it was best if they went in when the other occupants were awake. When they made this decision, they decided that they would sleep right outside the door.
When Zephyr and Anora woke up to the sounds and smells of humans cooking and talking, Zephyr raised a claw, and he started tapping on the door.
Shadowrath actually had the dexterity and brains to open the door, and the newly arrived Night Furies were taken aback when they locked eyes with a scarred Night Fury with blazing red-violet eyes. It is also worth mentioning that Shadowrath was also snarling at them.
"Shadowrath, what are you growling at?" Stoick asked as he approached him. Shadowrath stepped back, allowing Stoick to see the visitors, but he never took his blazing and furious eyes off of them.
Stoick took a good look at the two dragons. Clearly, they were mates from judging the fact that they were close in age, differing in genders, looked different, and there was the fact that Night Furies only lay one egg per mating season. Now, Stoick was looking at their characteristics; the female had Toothless' eyes, but the male was quite a bit darker than her.
As Shadowrath started to growl again, Stoick hushed him saying: "Calm down, Shadowrath, you are a great warrior, but you don't need anymore scars. Besides, they're not showing any sign of threat. In fact, they look like they could be Toothless' parents."
Toothless, who's Toothless? The mates thought. Never mind that…
Stoick and Shadowrath stepped aside to allowed Lady Anora and Zephyr inside. The new dragons were dismayed to find that there were a handful of dragons clustered together around a fire pit, but their precious hatchling was curled up in a corner with a human girl who reeked of a Skrill's scent.
Lady Anora licked Toothless awake saying: "Hey, Shadeghost, momma's here, and so is your father."
Toothless and Whoshadow were now awake, but with Zephyr looking at Whoshadow disapprovingly, the Skrill-turned-human decided that it was best to give the Night Furies their space. She may've left Toothless, but she made sure that Sapphire was awake. Midnightfire was still sleeping under her father's wing, and couldn't be seen by her grandparents.
"I thought you were still on Berk." Toothless spoke, he wasn't moving much though.
"I saw what happened and how you reacted. We figured that we were needed here more than where the Thunder Queen is." Lady Anora replied. She then nudged Toothless onto his feet; he was stubborn at first, but this was his mother, and she only wanted to help him. So he stayed up, and revealed Midnightfire too.
"Who is this?" Zephyr asked astonished.
"Her name is: Midnightfire. I am her mother, Sapphire, and Toothless is her father."
"Our Shadeghost has a mate and hatchling!" Lady Anora exclaimed with delight, and woke up both Midnightfire and a human baby, who started crying.
Midnightfire didn't want to hear tears anymore, so she flew over to the little Anora to try and calm her down with her presence. Valka and Astrid had also put a pause to their cooking to make sure that the baby would calm down.
Toothless figured that his friends and parents would want him moving, so he approached Astrid when she picked up the baby. Her crying was harsh to Toothless' ears, but he wanted to make sure that she was really okay.
"She's fine, Toothless, she just didn't like being woken up." Astrid said.
"Actually, his parents are calling him: Shadeghost." Whoshadow spoke up.
"Shadeghost, huh, it seems to be a name a Night Fury could bear proudly." Stoick stated with Shadowrath nodding in agreement.
"I agree with that too, but he would rather be called: Toothless. I think the reasons behind that are obvious." Whoshadow stated.
"Well, as his parents, we will call him by the name we gave him. Now, Shadeghost, would you please tell us what made the human so important to you?" Lady Anora said.
Toothless elaborated on everything that happened between him and Hiccup. He started from how they met, and ended at the point where they defeated Drago Bludvist for a second time. His parents were in awe as to how their son not only battled, but also defeated a Red Death and a Bewilderbeast, and to find out that Aric was not their Alpha, but that Toothless was. They were also greatly impressed that Toothless had the command to have his dragons create Dragonstones.
"Now we understand why your heart is broken." Zephyr stated.
"Breakfast time." Valka called out. By now, all dragons and humans in Alvin's household were awake, although Gobber had to be woken up by a few slaps to the face.
Astrid had set Anora back in her makeshift bed and began to hand out fish and chicken to the dragons. Since Toothless would need an extra boost of energy to push through the day, was given more of the chicken than the fish. He kind of picked through his breakfast, but his friends and family made damn sure that he ate most of it.
"Whoshadow, there's something I want to ask you." Astrid stated, looking up from her bowl of oatmeal.
"I can only guess what that would be." She replied, looking up from her fish.
"As much as I love Stormfly, I want to ask you if you'd be alright if I rode you for the next battle we have against Dagur. Both you and I want to destroy Dagur for the pain he's caused us equally, and hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, scarred, and broken-hearted."
"I like the way you think, Astrid, and for that I will allow you to ride me, but I want Claudette to be okay with that." Whoshadow replied. Toothless explained to his confused parents that Whoshadow was really a Skrill, and he made sure that they were clear about the relationships between the humans and dragons were to Hiccup. Lady Anora was quite proud to find out that her son's best friend made his daughter her namesake.
"Hey, where Dagur simply stabbed your foot, Claudette actually cut mine off. Now she'll do just about anything to keep us on good terms, although giving her a guilt trip would be the first time I'd actually abuse it." Astrid replied.
"Alright, but when Claudette agrees, I'm going to need some practice flying with you. I know that every dragon flies differently from another, even if they're the same breed, so following that train of thought, it must mean that not all humans ride the same. Of course, because you're all different weights and sizes, you'd all feel very different. You also fight differently than Claudette." Whoshadow told her.
With breakfast over with, the humans and dragons left Alvin's house to conduct their business. However, Toothless had to be dragged out of the house, and once outside, he had a choice: He could go flying around the island with his friends and family (and Whoshadow would be riding Cloudjumper), or Shadowrath would challenge him for the Alpha position. Now, with a broken heart, all Toothless wanted to do was go back in the corner and be left to grieve.
It took a lot of encouraging from his friends and family, and quite a bit of snarling from Shadowrath, before they convinced Toothless to stretch his wings and take to the sky, but he wasn't flying high or fast enough for them. He wasn't above any treetops, and a Terrible Terror could pass him.
"Come on, love, fly for your life!" Sapphire called out. She was desperately trying to encourage him, but for some reason, Toothless didn't find the motivation in the word 'life', but he ascended a little bit.
"Daddy, fly for me! I don't want to see you like this." Midnightfire told him. Looking into Midnightfire's eyes, he saw her hope for him and they reflected his love or her. So for Midnightfire, he sped up more.
From below, Hookfang, Barf, Belch, Scauldy, and Meatlug saw their friends trying to encourage Toothless to mend his broken heart and regain the strength he would need to fight again, and just to live. So they woke up their riders and demanded that they go flying right now! It didn't take long for them to take to the skies and join the party.
"Fly for your allies!" Blade called out to Toothless. 'Allies' wasn't much of a motivator, but he knew that they were needed. So he ascended a little bit.
"Hey, Astrid's hurting too, and she has the responsibility of raising a hatchling on her own! Now fly for Astrid!" Stormfly shouted. For Astrid he sped up more.
"Now what about the baby, Anora?" Lady Anora called out. For the beautiful dragon-eyed baby, Toothless picked up even more speed and height.
"Hey, don't we mean anything to you? You're our Alpha, and we care about you! Now fly for us!" Hookfang roared.
"FLY FOR US!" The other dragons roared. For his draconic friends and family, Toothless' face of wallowing grief was replaced with determination. Yes, he was their Alpha, and these dragons meant a lot to him, so he was determined to regain his strength in order to be able to protect him. He let out a roar to voice his determination to make sure that they knew he would not let Dagur harm them or their riders.
The roar caused all humans to freeze where they were, or come out of their houses, and watch the scene take place. As for Berk's dragons, all of them had taken to the skies now, whether their riders, if they had one, were on their backs or not!
"Fly for Berk!" Shadowrath roared. For Berk, Toothless remembered that he swore to Loki, Thor, and Odin that he will make Dagur pay for his crimes. He sped up greatly, ascended more, and let out a furious bellow. The sound of it uplifted the dragons greatly and they ascended with him. Yes, their Alpha was refusing to be consumed by his broken heart and grief. He was going to be sure that his loss would not be in vain.
"FOR BERK!" Toothless called out. His following dragons roared it back to him as if it were a battle cry.
Now Cloudjumper pulled up to Toothless and he told him: "Now, Hiccup wouldn't want to see you wallowing in your grief. He also wouldn't want Berserkers on his island. Now, fly for his honor! FLY FOR HICCUP!"
"FLY FOR HICCUP!" All of Berk's dragons roared.
They should've started with that…
For Hiccup's honor, for his bravery, and for his friendship, Toothless made a vertical ascent of 1000 feet, with speed would have been unfathomed by Hiccup or Toothless, or any Strike class dragon! His ascent was a blink-and-you-miss moment, which had all dragons' heads suddenly pointing upwards.
Toothless was spiraling upwards, and he decided to do a flight dedicated to Hiccup's memory, and Toothless started it with Hiccup's favorite trick… The Dive Bomb.
He aimed downward, tucked in his wings, and plummeted to the ocean's surface at an alarming speed, but after pulling up, Toothless reenacted the first flight he and Hiccup had together, on speed. It even included the part where Hiccup slipped off of the saddle when he was trying to grab his cheat sheet.
As the flight reenactment came to a close, Toothless fired a plasma blast and thought to himself: That was for you, Buddy, and so is this!
Toothless, once again ascended with a vertical steep, and put on a show for dragons and humans. He dive bombed, spiraled, made tight turns, barrel-rolled, and weaved through sea stacks… All of them at screaming speeds. He was flying in a manner that was awe-inspiring, and made him the envy of all dragons.
As he was flying, Aric and Brünhild built him a pillar of ice for him to perch. Aric called Toothless down to it, and when he landed, Toothless had gone into Alpha mode, making some of his scales turn blue.
Toothless roared triumphantly, and then roared out the orders for the dragons to form a circle. They knew where this was going.
As the dragons formed a circle, they made sure that they had another dragon of the same species at the diameter of their circle.
Toothless roared out the order for them to start rotating, and faster and faster they went. The dragons breathed their fire and took their shots, until Toothless was satisfied.
From below, the humans were in awe over the spinning disk of fire, water, and lightning the dragons had created, but it was the final explosion from Toothless' shot that really mystified them.
The dragons dispersed, and Toothless came in for a landing before Astrid, holding the familiar rock in his claws. He had Meatlug crack this one open, and to reveal another Dragonstone. Astrid was grateful to find that Toothless wanted to give her this gift, but she told him: "Thank you, but this is your work of art, and I want you to have it for yourself."
"I'll take it then. I'll make Toothless a gauntlet for it to match Midnightfire's." Gobber announced. He plucked the stone out of the rock, patted Toothless on the back, and told him: "Thank you for that, it was just the thing we needed to see to get us to think about what really matters now."
The next couple days have passed fairly slowly, but Gobber made Toothless the Gauntlet, Alvin and Stoick were planning on the feast in Hiccup's honor, and Toothless was doing much better. Very little trouble was also going on.
A light rain was falling over Outcast Island, and a human Whoshadow wanted to feel the rain on her wings as she took in the lightning that was sure to follow it.
"So, Whoshadow, are you going to maintain your composure until the next battle?" Midnightfire asked her.
"Oh yes, now please change me back!" She replied. Midnightfire tapped her Dragonstone and Whoshadow returned to her Skrill form. She grinned and stated: "Now this is much better!" Without a moment to lose, she took to the skies, just as the storm was beginning to pick up, and she took in as much lightning as possible!
As Whoshadow was harvesting lightning, the feast was being set up in the Outcast Great Hall.
"What do you think?" Alvin asked the Haddock family.
"It's lovely." Valka replied. Cloudjumper warbled in agreement. Now that Toothless was feeling better, Cloudjumper barely left Valka's side to make sure that she didn't fall into grief.
"Yes, it is an arrangement to be proud of." Stoick added.
"Good, we've been working hard on it." Alvin stated.
The tables were finally set, and the Vikings started filing in. They took their seats in a respectable quietness, and they stayed quiet until the toasts were made to the fallen chief's honor, before they dug in to the feast.
About halfway through the feast, a Terrible Terror flew into the hall, and landed before Alvin and Stoick with a letter tied to it. Alvin took the letter, and announced: "It's from former Chief Goosefoot!"
Alvin handed the letter to Stoick and he read it aloud:
To the Berkians and Outcasts,
I just wanted you to know that the Berserker Tribe is disgusted with this war and we mourn your loss with you. Therefore, five of my most loyal supporters and I have signed a round robin and we've plotted a mutiny against Dagur.
We plan on only pretending to fight with you for a short while to deceive Dagur for a while, but then we plan on turning against him right in the middle of the battle. The signers of the round robin, including myself, have been training dragons underneath Dagur's nose. We've only managed to tame Monstrous Nightmares and Timberjacks, but I managed to tame a male Skrill, and have named him: Vengeance. He hasn't been much trouble, and I've learned to ride him. So I will join your riders in the skies, and so will the round robin.
Former Chief of the Berserker Tribe, Goosefoot.
To that, the Vikings cheered, and went back to their feast with even more gusto!
Now that makes three. The next chapter will be the answer you've all been waiting for.