Hello, everyone!
Sorry for the long delay again! Hopefully I'll be able to update later this week as well. For now, have this shorter chapter that I was able to edit in one sitting!
I'd like to thank TheFreeFlightAuthor, TheDayofRickening, Surprise Crayfish, NomexGlove, CallMeUrmo, Marce7411, Lightbrightfury, MysteryWriter175, and picothea for your wonderful reviews! I truly enjoy reading everyone's thoughts, so your words are greatly appreciated.
I also would like to thank kwizjunior, Dragon Crusader, Anticept, Crysist, Samateus, Dys, LapisSea, and RS for all of your help with beta-ing!
I hope you enjoy, and have an excellent day!
Chapter 22
Toothless
Though we hated to disturb her, we had to move. We had certainly alerted every creature in the mountains to our presence with all of my frantic calling and the white Shadow-Blender's screaming.
It seemed that the fright of discovering her magic again—however strange such a thing seemed—had exhausted her even further beyond her near forever-sleep. I managed to rouse her, but barely. She struggled to lift herself up on her front legs, head lolling and eyelids heavy. I swung my head beneath her chest and hoisted her up onto my shoulders and across my back, gritting my teeth with the effort. The little Shadow-Blender's paws dangled just above the ground.
"Are you sure you can carry her?" Hiccup worried, gathering all of our holding-things in his paws.
"For awhile," I groaned. Closing my eyes, I reached within myself and flared my magic to life. A slow, controlled stream flowed through my magic channels, gifting temporary strength and endurance to my limbs. I hurried us into the dappled shadows of the forest, Hiccup at my side.
He bustled ahead, clambering up a steep slope covered in ferns and flowering, thorny bushes. "We're close to the mountain here," he said. "We should look for another cave."
I whuffed. "This reminds me…" I groaned as I climbed over a stone. "…of when we were in the cave on Berk…" Another grunt, shifting my weight to keep the Shadow-Blender from brushing against the thorns. "...running from the King…and I was carrying you."
Hiccup grimaced. "And I knocked you out trying to heal you? And then we were captured?"
"Mhm," I gasped, finally cresting the hill at his side.
"Good times," Hiccup said, rolling his eyes. "Do you hear anything?"
"I don't think dragons can hear caves, Hiccup."
He tugged my ear. "Echoes. Water. Bats, maybe?"
I shook my head, but then stretched my neck skywards, straining my ears and frills. Insects, birds, the wind through leaves and grass, the soft tumbling of pebbles, even the high squeak of some tiny rodent nearby. There was the rush of the river behind us, but that was all.
"I don't," I said.
"I do."
Hiccup and I jumped. The white Shadow-Blender lifted her head on a wobbly neck, blinking blearily. "There," she whispered, pointing with her nose west, directly towards the golden-lit mountain looming between the gaps in the canopy. "I hear…water on stones…"
We hurried down the incline, splashing down into a small creek and through a river of grass. I kept my head low, eyes narrowed, focusing on each step after the other. I normally called on magic in short, effective bursts. Maintaining a low burn of it was strenuous. I was ever-aware of my fading supply. The weight of the dragoness who had wanted to induce forever-sleep pressed heavy on my shoulders. I needed to save enough. If she did it again, I had to be able to save her. But I couldn't keep this up for long.
"Wait!" Hiccup shouted, and his paws were in front of my eyes, shoving me back. The Shadow-Blender tensed, but could do nothing more. I lurched backwards, panting.
"Wha…" I flicked my eyes up. My ears went flat against my head.
Before us, the field of grass plunged into a deep cliff. At its base was a great tumble of rocks, huge ones and small ones, with a faint spray of water drifting down from above. The mountain shed some water, almost a light rain. Below, distorted by echoes, was the steady pitter-patter of dripping water. Squinting, I peered over the edge of the cliff.
"There," Hiccup said, pointing the human way. Just down the path, almost obscured by an enormous boulder the size of a tree-cave, was a wall of black surrounded by a shallow pool of water. A cave. "Look, it slopes a little down the way. Let's go!"
Seeing shelter so close, new strength flooded my legs. I put my head down and trusted Hiccup, following directly in his footsteps as he wove through the trees and foliage down a gradual drop. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, each footstep accompanied by the mud trying to suck my claws under, the sun beating down, the weight of the broken, little Shadow-Blender, so limp and defeated. I scarcely noticed when the terrain shifted from muddy grass to stone, then to tumbling pebbles, until, finally, I set my paw down and sprayed myself with a huge splash of water.
I looked up. There was the cave, its great walls reaching out like protective wings. With a relieved sigh, I followed Hiccup inside, squeezing past the boulder at the entrance. Fangs of stone jutted from the floor and ceiling, but the ground was smooth from decades of water's passage. The floor rolled in gentle waves up and down, collecting puddles that ran in rivulets downhill.
Most intriguing of all were the thousands of delicate, luminescent, cyan strings that dangled from the ceiling. I had seen the human thing 'jewelry' before, made of rocks rubbed so tediously that they caught the light and shone. Now I wondered if 'jewelry' came from here, because the glistening webs were wondrous, casting gentle light throughout the cavern.
Admiring the scenery could happen later. I stepped over to the driest area I could find and eased down, releasing my magic's hold. The white Shadow-Blender slid off of my back and drooped the rest of the way to the ground.
"Thank you…" she mumbled. Her eyes fluttered open and she cast about. Her face brightened, as if the deep shadows were light, as if she'd flown over the ocean for miles and finally found refuge. Her head flopped back to the floor and she rearranged herself into a comfortable position, looking for once like a dragon and not a little lightning-ball of terrified energy. Within moments, her breathing evened out again.
Hiccup came over and offered me a salted fish, which I gratefully accepted—on the condition that he eat, too. We found a dry area a few paces away from the Shadow-Blender and sat against each other, sharing a meal.
"When we're able to, we'll need to head back to our home-cave," Hiccup reminded me. "Now we've spent so long outside it, Dad and Haugaeldr could have found it and thought that we were the ones missing."
I nodded, glancing at the white Shadow-Blender. "I wonder if she'll come…" Hiccup lowered his gaze, and I quickly added, "But you are right; finding the King and Haugaeldr is our most important priority." Swallowing another bite, I said, "Do you think the people who muzzled her are the same ones who set that trap?"
"Yes," Hiccup said without hesitation. "And judging by the writing on the cages I found, they work with the same people as the ones on those ships."
"Grimmel," I hissed. "Then it seems we have another task, too."
So we pondered over our next course of action. First, searching for the King and Haugaeldr, even seeking out dragons in the area to see if they'd seen them. Then, of course, telling them that we had found a Shadow-Blender—found a Shadow-Blender!—and that we were certain Grimmel was in the area. Once again, Hiccup retrieved the map we had stolen, trying to discern its meaning through sheer force of staring alone.
It was during this, the both of us hunched over the map, squinting and tipping our heads this way and that, that the forest outside went still. Like a pressure wave just before the boom of an explosion, the cadence of the songbirds and insects hushed. The silence was almost a physical thing, commanding all to heed it. Hiccup and I stilled. Even the white Shadow-Blender stirred in her sleep, pulling her wings and tail in close.
The steady fwap fwap fwap of rapid wingbeats from far outside. Then the tell-tale creaking of a large wooden structure, like the floating-trees—ships—that humans used to swim in the ocean. Within the earthen sound was the sharp, bright clinking of metal hitting metal. Buried beneath it all was a low murmur, rising and falling. Human voices.
The moment I told Hiccup, the idiot tried to rush to the cave entrance to have a look outside. I snatched him up by his scruff, even as he growled and flailed, and set him down on my other side.
"What if they see you?!" I scolded. "Any figure coming out of a dark cave will be easily spotted!"
"We have to see what they are and where they're going!" he said. "Especially if you heard dragons flying!"
I frowned, tail swaying with indecision. It was odd to hear wingbeats with the sound of a human-thing.
With Hiccup huffing his agitation behind me, I crept over to the cave entrance. Already, the sound was near gone. I inched my nose out, and when no alarming scents met me, poked my head just around the entrance.
A glimmer of red down the valley caught my eye and was gone just as quick. It was enough. The glitter in the light was unmistakable: dragon scales.
I retreated back into our sanctuary. "At least one red dragon," I whispered, as if they could hear me in the deep silence about us. "I don't think it was the King and Haugaeldr."
Hiccup had that stupid, determined look in his eye. "I think we should keep an eye on them."
"The sun is still up," I protested. "They'll surely see us."
Hiccup opened his mouth to argue. I sat back, eyes half-lidded, and braced myself for what would inevitably be a thirty-minute long discussion in which nothing was accomplished.
"What is…a 'King'?"
Both of us whipped towards the pearlescent Shadow-Blender. She'd raised her head, though she was very careful to keep it low.
I blinked, tipping my head to the side. If she had asked who the King was, that would be understandable. But what a King is?
"The leader of a nest," Hiccup explained. "Ours—"
But the moment her eyes flew towards him, she pressed her ears tight to her skull and hunched down, her dorsal fin arched and catching the glowing string-light.
"You're safe," I told her, struggling to keep any agitation or defensiveness from my voice. "Both of us will keep you safe."
Her eyes hardly left Hiccup. "I heard that word, where the liar-monster kept me," she breathed. "And…" her eyes lit up with sudden realization. "He also mentioned…a 'Hiccup' and 'Toothless'…"
My paws dropped beneath me. Whoever the "liar-monster" was—and I certainly had my suspicions—there was no reason for her to have heard our names. Unless…unless…no.
"What do you mean?" I demanded. "Was it a dragon you heard saying this? A golden dragon, very skinny and small?"
Her brows furrowed, staring into her memories. "Yes," she whispered, and this time my paws did drop beneath me, forcing me to sit down. Hiccup pressed his shoulder to mine, and heedless to our shock, the little dragon went on.
"I heard him screaming to a 'King', saying 'Hiccup here', 'Hiccup dragon', and that he couldn't see or smell 'Toothless'. But…those are you, aren't they?" she asked incredulously.
"Yes," I breathed, though I felt far away, like someone else had answered for me.
"Oh…oh no…" Hiccup heaved, holding a paw to his chest. On instinct, I wrapped a wing around his back, even as my head spun with the inevitable conclusion of it all.
They had been captured. This whole time, we'd been wasting time, flying around, laying marks for hunters to easily find us, and they'd been captured. Captured by Grimmel, or the shadow-nest humans, or whoever was hunting the dragons here, or worse—we didn't know. There was so much we didn't know.
But why would Haugaeldr shout that Hiccup was a dragon?
The white Shadow-Blender went on, "I only heard him speak once, before another dragon of your kind saved me."
With that, she shattered what little stability in our composure we managed to cling to.
"WHAT?!" Hiccup and I shouted, amazed and horrified and excited and terrified in a dizzying whirl of emotions.
The Shadow-Blender snapped her head back like we'd flamed her. Her wide eyes glittered in the cyan glow.
"Please," Hiccup said. He took a step forward, remembered her fear, and retreated. "Please, tell us everything."
So she did. Resting on an island far away. Seeing a dragon flying overhead. Hearing a scream a few hours later, seeing a confrontation between a "liar-monster", "mountain-monster", and golden dragon which was interrupted by a Shadow-Blender dissolving from the shadows and attacking the "mountain-monster".
Her accented voice drifting along the smooth cavern walls like a trickling stream. She described her flight from the Shadow-Blender. Managing to escape, seeing a hint of red-scaled dragons, only to feel a sting and fall unconscious. Waking up inside a "jaw"—which I assumed was a cage—with the Shadow-Blender standing guard, empty of all life and passion. The "liar-monster" trying to force her submission.
Every time she said that hateful word "monster", her eyes flicked to Hiccup. Every time, a defensive growl rose in my throat. Every time, he pressed a paw to mine or sent me a quick look, making it clear that losing my temper now would be the opposite of helpful. But, oh, did I want to lose my temper. With every description of the liar-monster human hurting her and our family, every quick look at Hiccup, so clearly comparing him to that human as an equal, it became too offensive to bear.
My anger peaked with the very same sympathy my heart swelled with as she described her cruel torture, a flustered mixture of rage for her and at her. When she reached that part of her story, of the coward shooting her, a helpless, terrified thing, over and over and over, all from the safety of the other side of a cage, I did growl. Hiccup echoed it at my side.
The Shadow-Blender looked down. "I thought I would die, then," she said softly. "And I thought…it would be worth it, instead of listening to him, and becoming a nothing-eyed dragon."
"You were very brave," Hiccup said, overtone gentle. "I can't even imagine how scary that must have been."
She flicked her eyes up to him, ever-cautious. "Can all monsters…can you make nothing-eyed dragons, too?"
That was it.
"How could you say that?!" I roared, launching to my full height, opening my wings, teeth bared.
"Toothless—!"
"No!" I seethed. "I am tired of you saying such hurtful, ignorant things to my brother! We have told you countless times that we will keep you safe! He got your muzzle off, he knew how to save your life, he helped me find shelter when I carried you, and still you accuse him of—of—these horrible things, and call him monster!"
The little Shadow-Blender skittered away until her rump pushed against the cavern wall, where she contorted into a little ball. She pressed her nose to the earth, her eyes rooted firmly to the pebbles in front of her, only daring a single plaintive glance up at me.
"Toothless!" Hiccup snapped with a harsh tug on my ear. When I swung towards him, leering, he set me with a firm look. "Stop. This isn't helping."
I understood that. I didn't want to. But…Dragon of the Sun, damn it.
Nose wrinkled, I spun to face the white dragon. She flinched—actually flinched. Squeezing her eyes shut, she hid her face beneath a paw and covered her head with a wing.
Through my rage, it took precious too many seconds for me to realize that she thought that I would strike her.
Worse, she simply…accepted it.
Even in such dim light, one could plainly see the myriads of scars marring her hide. The wound on her muzzle, fresh and raw. The faint, ragged lines that raked across her neck, shoulders, haunches, even her ears and frills. The few but unmistakable rows of teeth-marks. The frayed edges of her wings and tailfins, too consistently to be from mere accidents. She had been clawed and bitten. Often. The heart of her story was visible to all who laid eyes upon her.
What had this little dragon lived through, to decide that lying down and waiting to be attacked was the better option?
My anger swept out of me. Though she was out of line, and I would not hesitate again to tell her again…she had been through so much in only a few days. Screaming at her to stop being frightened would obviously not reassure her, and besides that, was a very boneheaded demand.
"I'm sorry," I said at last, ducking my head. I waited for her to cautiously peek out from beneath her shelter and went on, "I shouldn't have yelled. I was frustrated. I just…" I closed my eyes, trying to smooth my anger down. "I know it's not an excuse, but I just don't know how else I can explain to you that Hiccup won't hurt you! He was a dragon, once. He was hunted and captured and muzzled, too." Ears flat, I turned to my brother, who was trying to put on a painful smile, and gently licked his fur. This, at least, helped me calm my racing heart. "And one day, hopefully soon, he will return to his dragon form."
Hiccup snapped his head up to me, eyes brimming with a question—the question.
The white Shadow-Blender looked between us, eyes desperate and confused and, above all, exhausted. Though she was young, that stare was worn thin. Just this morning, she had cried out that we should have let her die. I wanted nothing more than to find a way for her to feel safe. To never see death as a release again.
She needed to trust us, too, though.
"I'm sorry, too," she rasped, though she made no effort to relax her posture. "I don't want to fight…please don't make me fight."
She looked at Hiccup. For a long moment, the two of them stared deep into the other's eyes. Her gaze trailed over his dragon-self, from the ears and frills, the scales and wings at his back, all the way down to his feet with my shed claws secured there. She lingered on his artificial leg, the metal that glinted in the faint light.
Her gradual realization that it was a part of him, not some random object he carried, was as clear as the sky-blue of her eyes. She looked between artificial and real leg, and I could almost peer inside her thoughts as she went through a range of confusion, horror, understanding, and lastly, pity. Perhaps she, too, was only now noticing scars, realizing what hardship must have accompanied them, and wondering what happened?
"If you are truly not one of them…" she finally began, and my heart soared, so much that I scarcely heard her next words. "How were you once a dragon, and why are you…?" She trailed off, clearly struggling to find the words.
"It's a long story," Hiccup chuckled, "but in a word: magic."
Her ears went flat. "Magic can turn dragons into mon—" she cut herself off, wide eyes flicking to mine, "—into that?!"
"I was born human," Hiccup said, "and changed into a dragon. That was how Toothless and I came to be family." He brushed up against my side. "But in a battle to free our nest from a tyrannical Queen, she caught me as she died and forced me to become human." He paused, giving the Shadow-Blender time to process. "I really thought it was the end of my world," he said softly. "I thought I would always feel empty inside. I still feel it, sometimes. Toothless helped me. And, in the end, I regained the magic that can change me back."
"So…" She looked down at her paws, forlorn. "Magic has cursed you, too."
I bristled. Hiccup merely tilted his head.
"I consider it a blessing," he said. "I have certainly suffered…but I would have never found the happiness and family I have now without it."
She studied him, perturbed, before shaking her head with drooping ears and frills. "Magic has only given me, and everyone around me, suffering." Her eyes drifted to Hiccup's. "Is it truly worth it?"
Hiccup paused, probably to think of something far deeper and more thoughtful than the blunt "yes, obviously" that I wanted to say.
A shriek echoed through the valley. Though distorted by distance and anguish, a vague worry at the rear of my thoughts leapt into urgent reality within a heartbeat.
We'd flown completely beyond the original problem, so distracted by talking about other Shadow-Blenders and Hiccup.
The red dragon. The creak of wood. Human voices. Dragons flying. Her story of capture.
Galewing.
Damn it, damn it, damn it! We had been spotted—likely, I had been spotted. Hiccup was right. We should have followed the strange sounds, we should have investigated, and now—!
Hiccup leapt upon my shoulders. I raced to the cavern entrance.
"Wait!" the Shadow-Blender cried, heaving to her feet. "Don't! You'll be hunted, too!"
"We have to help!" Hiccup said, his anxiety matching hers in intensity.
"Stay here!" I told the shaking little dragon. "We'll come back, but you are in no condition to fly. Stay here, stay hidden and quiet, and you'll be safe!"
"Please don't…" she whispered, still standing, legs wobbly with fear and effort.
"It's okay," I said with what was hopefully a reassuring smile. "This is what we do."
With that, I flung out of the cave and tore through the forest, sprinting as though it was my life that hung in the balance. Once we were a safe distance away from the cave, I leapt into the great shafts of sunset-light and deep shadow, flinging into a straight ascent.
Through it all, Galewing ceaselessly screamed.
o.O.o
…
"Farflight! FARFLIGHT!"
A whorl of fire crested through the cavern entrance, pouring out like a waterfall and catching the hardy succulents, mosses, and lichen aflame. The blaze was white-blue, drowning out all other light, like an aurora tearing down from the skies to rampage.
You pushed down the pair of goggles that shielded your eyes from the heat. A series of whistles and snaps came from your lips: protect.
"Protect! Protect! Protect!"
At once, red-scaled dragons with wicked talons and stingers bustled around you, wings strained around you to cover you from all sides. You gave the command forward. As a single unit, you and the dragons stepped up to the nest's entrance. It swallowed the light as you ventured inside. The stone below was painfully hot to stand on, glowing like hot embers in some places.
A snarl was the only warning before the blaze came upon you. The Deathgrippers hunched over you, eyes squinting in pain. Every bone, tendon, and blood vessel within their wings were visible against the intensity of the firelight. Some of the vessels broke in the heat, oozing blood through the delicate wing membranes like ink seeping through a damp cloth. Their forms wavered, caught up in a heat mirage. The very air fled the cavern, thin and difficult to breathe. Protected by the Deathgrippers, hidden completely from harm and view, you patiently waited.
The moment the deluge receded, you whistled hold down before the dragoness could draw a single breath.
"Hold down!" the Deathgrippers hissed, eyes lighting with excitement. As a single mass, a wave unto themselves, they rushed the dragoness. She raised her head with a snarl, but the fire-glow in her throat faded.
Below, her yearling wailed for her.
It had all been very simple. Not nearly the challenge you preferred. Your most trusted men, donned in as much dragon-hide armor as yourself, had secured the perimeter. There, they had assembled the net-launcher on a nearby mountainside. All it took was a hatchling-call, perfectly imitating that of a newborn dragon, for the yearling to poke his head out and come investigate. He had been downed, swift as a hawk upon an unsuspecting sparrow. One of your Deathgrippers had easily grappled him and brought him to your platform, resting in a nook below, where he had been thrown into your cage. Now he quailed for his mother, his tiny voice lost on the wind.
She had lunged to defend the yearling, which was when your men lying in waiting sprung out at her, batting her back with long-shafted spears. Reinforced by Deathgrippers ordered to shield them, they had forced her to retreat into her nest, blocking off all hope of escape. There she shrilled and raged, flaming and flaming, until your final approach.
For that had been her last shot.
She fought the Deathgrippers well. For a full minute, the dragons rose and swept down and arched and leapt in their deadly dance, the mother desperate to worm her way to safety, the mindless Deathgrippers thrilling in carrying out their commands. Her neck, wing-claws, and spined tail had incredible reach, and more than one dragon let out a squeal as their armor-like hides were gouged down to the glistening bone. Blood splattered the floor and walls in a gruesome rainfall. The cavern—familiar?—once again became a place of death.
She was greatly outnumbered and they did her no favors by attacking one at a time. With an impatient faster! from you, they lunged all at once. Though many took injuries, one losing a stinger, another an eye, their quarrel ended as soon as it had begun. They pinned her to the ground, her captors easing their full weight onto all of her major joints. They did not bend to lick their wounds, nor did they preen over their victory, nor did they even look to you for approval. Their blood pooled on the ground, rippling like a dark lake.
Now the dragoness' eyes were wild and rolling with mad terror, both for herself and her yearling. Despite herself, she gaped her maw at you, but no fire came. A Deathgripper slammed a paw onto her lithe muzzle.
You put your old crossbow—that first one, kept from long ago—back into its holster. Grasping your hands behind your back, you commanded, "Report!"
The captain threw back his face plate. He was beaming. "Minor injuries on our end, my lord! And we've found some eggs a little deeper within."
"Again?" you mused. "This must be a popular spot. Bring them out." You turned to the writhing dragoness and grinned. "And now, we wait."
She leered at you. Her gaze drifted just to your side, straight forward, and her pupils thinned. Like many dragons these days, her gaze held directly ahead, as if your eyes were much lower than they actually were. She tried to speak, but could only manage a confused, betrayed whimper with her snout crushed beneath a paw.
A whistle on the wind came from outside. An ear flicked towards the entrance. As you had ordered before the hunt, next came the proper response: "They're here."
With that warning, you signaled your hunters, who dove for cover. Those watching outside turned and fled, hiding beneath dragon-scale shields or leaping deftly down the mountain to safety.
A familiar hiss. The death-scream of a fireball streaking through the air. Heat spreading across the back.
That first order: Protect.
Leap, wrap wings around, protect…!
The purple explosion was brilliant even behind wings and closed eyes. The roar that followed it, achingly, achingly nearby, matched it in volume.
When it was over, you snapped back! and pushed out from beneath the shielding wings and paws. You took a moment to dust yourself off before you calmly faced the Shadow-Blender, hands folded behind your back.
The Night Fury was not looking at you. His luminescent green eyes shimmered in the dark. His wings, still runtish, fell limp to the ground. He gaped wordlessly, even as the dragon-boy atop his shoulders hissed urgently in his ear, eyeing the men closing in on them from all sides.
When he spoke, his voice was tiny and broken, a perfect echo from years long since passed.
"…Brother?"