AN: This took forever, but here it is! Finally! The last chapter! Yey~! I just reread my first couple of chapters, and man! …They suck. What are you guys talking about? I need to go over them a few more times, so be on the look out for that in the future.

Hiccup shivered as a wind blew, snuggling closer to Toothless. The weather was getting colder, and the sky overhead had been pretty gloomy and gray all day. The kind of gray that meant an approaching snowstorm. And a good one if experience held true.

"I don't like the look of those clouds." Hiccup muttered. They were sitting outside on the ground at the Elders house, waiting for her. The old women occasionally asked to borrow Toothless for random things that no body else really understood. And because she was the Elder, it wasn't like they could say 'no'. Luckily it didn't usually cause any particularly inconvenient.

Things were going fine. Ragnar was getting better at riding, and there hadn't been any incidents since that day with the eels. However that ill feeling Hiccup had experienced, hadn't left. He'd gone to the medicine women. Her cures and chants hadn't helped him. Toothless, as expected, was concerned and wanted his Mate to stay in the nest, taking it easy. Hiccup refused. It wasn't hindering him or anything. (1)

"You might get your wish tomorrow Buddy." The human pointed out, staring at the ominous sky. "I think you and I are going to be stuck in the cave when this storm hits."

Toothless purred, pleased at the prospect and pulling his Mate closer with his tail. There was a reason to be thankful for the snow. He loved being the one to keep the small human nice and warm.

Thinking about that, Toothless sent him the thought of their warm cave. His wing stretched over him, keeping him even warmer. Hiccup immediately thought of something a little more intimidate. Toothless purred softly.

They could do that too.

Hiccup pressed up against him, absorbing the warmth his dragon let off. "Will the eggs be ok in this weather?" He asked, looking for an explanation, more then a 'yes' or 'no' answer. Toothless would have told him if it was getting to cold for them.

Toothless reminded him that the eggs were strong, and that in the cave, buried as they were, they would be fine.

The door of the small Elder house opened, and the Elder came out. "Dragon Rider." She addressed, in a slow, breathy voice.

Hiccup blinked and stood up. "Yes?"

She smiled, so hunched and small that she had to look up to see him. "I will be keeping him for a while. It is getting late, and you should go home before it gets too dark."

Hiccup startled a little at that. "Oh! But its-! It's no trouble. I'll just wait until you are done with him."

She shoo'd him. "No. Go. Wait for your dragon at home. I will keep him long, and you will be bored."

Toothless laughed at expression on Hiccups face, and nudged him in the direction of the forest himself. He would be fine on his own, and Hiccup would have more to do in the cave.

'Ah, Buddy.' Hiccup thought. 'Are you sure?'

Toothless just nudged him again.

…

Hiccup made it back to the grotto shortly after nightfall, and just as the first snow started to fall. Without the little bit of sunlight warming the earth, the temperature had easily dropped another ten degrees. The storm clouds covered the sky like a thick quilt that the moonlight couldn't penetrate.

'Toothless?'

His head was filled with a bored feeling as Toothless relayed that he would probably take a little while longer. They shared a feeling of regret as Hiccup pushed the door tight against the rock as though that would help to retain any heat that was left over from that morning.

'Don't take to long Buddy…' He sent, thinking of them curled up above their nest. 'On such a cold night, you need to warm me up.' Pleasure was his reply.

It was dark, but he didn't have any trouble making his way to the chest and pulling out some candles to light. The glow was modest, but it was enough for him. He set enough of them on the ground that he could see most of the cave and pulled out his sketchbook. He didn't consider himself an outstanding artist, but he enjoyed it, and Toothless loved his work. Especially pictures of the two of them together.

He hadn't gotten very far on the new charcoal image for his Mate when there was a knock on the door. Hiccup sighed, wondering whom it was. Snowstorms were dangerous. Even Vikings knew that. So it had to be important for someone to fly out to him. He got up and pulled open the door.

The first thing that happened was that bad feeling came back ten fold.

Hiccup felt fear rack his body as Ragnar's hand slammed against the wooden door preventing him from even trying to close it.

"Hello Hiccup."

The door was forced open all the way, and although Hiccup yelped and attempted to retreat backwards, the older Viking was faster, catching hold of his green shirt and practically ripping him out of the cave. Toothless roared, feeling the danger that his Mate was in and broke from the Elders examination, sprinting towards the den.

There was no gentleness, as the Dragon Killer looked him over before tossing him in a general direction behind him. The thin layer of snow did nothing to lessen the impact as the brunet hit the ground and rolled.

What was going on? Why was Ragnar there? He hadn't seen him that day, but there was no reason for him to be there. There was no reason for him to even know about that place. Had… had he followed him?

Hiccup's arm hurt from the fall, but it wasn't anything that he couldn't handle. Carefully he pushed himself away from the ground in time to see Stonejaw, Ragnars second-in-command, disappear into the cave with a shovel in hand.

Hiccup felt his blood chill over.

'The eggs!'

He sprang to his feet and ran to the door without a though. He couldn't think. Not until his path was intercepted by a large body that grabbed him.

"No!" He yelled, immediately pounding and clawing at the arm that encircled his arm. He kicked with both legs, pulled and pushed, fell to the ground, but nothing worked. He wasn't strong enough to break the mans grip. "Let me go! I wont let you hurt them!"

"You should be worrying about more important things." Ragnar told him, not needing to lift his voice any more then normal to be heard over the freezing winds. "Like yourself."

He lifted Hiccup up by his shirt and held him against the cliff face, while the boy struggled for all his might. The cold burned Hiccup's face, and the snow made his clothes damp, but his blood was running so hot that he didn't even notice. He wasn't worried about himself. He couldn't worry about himself!

"If you cooperate Hiccup, there's no reason for you to get hurt." Ragnar said, in a tone that was trying to be sweet, but only felt hard. "Call your dragon."

Ragnar was after Toothless and the eggs. Probubly from the very beginning. Ever since his father mentioned them. He had probably been waiting for the right time to attack. Like a time when Hiccup was going home alone. When he could get a drop on the young Viking, and no one else would know.

Hiccup kicked, reaching for that one spot that was sure to get him released. However their positioning was wrong. His legs weren't long enough. And Ragnars free hand prevented him from kicking what he could reach, anyways.

'Toothless!' Hiccup called out mentally. 'He wants you! You have to stay back!'

The dragon wouldn't hear it.

"Toothless was right!" Hiccup yelled, his efforts to escape not making even a dent. "You haven't changed! When my father hears about this-!"

"Your father will hear what I tell him." Ragnar interrupted. "How you realized that I was right the whole time… right before your dragon killed you for the fun of it."

Hiccup glared. "No one would believe that!"

"I'll face that when I get to it." He said, this time drawing out a knife and holding it in front of his face threateningly. "Now call your dragon."

Toothless reached the edge of their little gorge, and jumped down, not slowing a bit until he was right outside of Ragnars hearing range. With the position the man had his Mate, if he tried to get close the man might hurt him. But if he didn't act, Hiccup was still in danger.

'Stay back!' Hiccup ordered. 'He wont kill me until he knows for sure that he has you!'

Toothless dug his claws into the ground, torn by uncertainty. Not getting what he wanted would only anger the killer, and even if he wouldn't kill, that didn't mean he couldn't harm. Torture the soft human; break him. Toothless wouldn't let that happen.

'I'll be fine!' Hiccup pleaded. 'There's another one! He's in the nest! He's after the eggs!'

There wasn't an ounce of hesitation in the reply. Dragons didn't bond to their offspring like humans did.

There could be more eggs.

There was only one Hiccup.

'Toothless!' Hiccup thought, fighting even harder. It was the first time that he had ever truly been angry at his dragon.

"Hiccup, it doesn't have to end this way." Came Ragnars voice, barging into his thoughts. "You don't have to die here. Agree to join my side. Help me win over the rest of the village. Turn against the dragons and I will spare you. I will take you with me. You could be my fragile little mate."

His voice was false. He was lying. Hiccup knew it. And the older Viking didn't make any effort to conceal it. He could have made his words more believable, but he knew there was no point. Hiccup wouldn't join his side, and Ragnar didn't really want him any more. Any attraction he had felt for the smaller human had been shattered when Hiccup revealed his body to be tainted by dragon. He would never share the same toy as one of those creatures.

"I will never betray Toothless!" Hiccup snarled, not letting up. "He is my Mate. And I wouldn't join you if Thor himself came down here and ordered me too!"

Ragnar was growing irritated, not even realizing that the dragon he searched for was a few feet behind him. "I don't care that one of the dragons is smart enough to trick you, and that you convinced your little village. They-"

"What about the eels? You put them in didn't you! To starve them! So that they would turn on us! But they didn't! They remained loyal!"

The man glared. "They hadn't reacted quite as I expected."

Hiccup saw a chance and latched onto it. "See! They didn't harm us! They were hungry and they could have eaten us, but they chose not too! Because we're their friends! They're our friends! How can you still think that they are evil?" He hoped that his words would chip away at the mans stubborn defense at least a little.

His hopes were shattered when a wide cruel sneer came to the older mans face.

"It doesn't matter if they are evil or not." He said, drawing attention to the blade again by pressing the cold flat against Hiccups neck. "You've never chopped off a dragons head. You've never seen their blood spill across the ground and known that it was your doing. I don't care what it is. When I walk though a village people fawn over me. The mighty Dragon Killer! Slayer of demons. I wont loss that respect, Hiccup. And I wont lose the thrill of hacking every, last, dragon I find, into tiny. little. bits."

Hiccup shivered at the delighted malice in the others voice. How content he was talking about cold-blooded massacre. Hiccup felt sick, and angry, and scared. "You bastard." He said, and then shouted. "You bastard! You would murder something you know is innocent for your amusement! No one will respect that! Dragons aren't demons! You're a demon!"

A huge fist collided with his stomach. The pain that exploded inside him made him think for a moment: That was it. He was going to die. The anguished sound that escaped his mouth was drowned out by a scream of rage from his Mate, unable to contain himself any longer.

Ragnar dropped Hiccup to the ground, not noticing the way the boy curled around his stomach in agony. Instead he looked out into the storm, drawing his axe as Toothless appeared just out of range. His teeth were bared, his eyes narrowed to slits, and almost clouded by rage. He still couldn't get close. It was still to easy for Ragnar to kill Hiccup before he reached.

'Hiccup!' He urged, sending an image of Hiccup getting out of danger.

The boy just trembled, the pain in his stomach turning into a slow throbbing ache. 'Gods! It hurts!'

Toothless let out breath after breath of fire, but each shot was defected by the shield. He lunged forward and back and moved around, trying to draw the monster away from his suffering Mate. However Ragnar seemed to know that. He stayed within striking distance.

"I'm going to kill him." The poor-excuse-for-a-human told him, making Toothless growl harder. "I'm going to kill your precious mate."

'Hiccup!'

The boy rolled up onto his knees. It hurt so much, but he was barring Toothless from acting by remaining. 'Be careful Toothless.' He thought with a wince. 'Don't you dare leave me.'

'Never.' Answered the Night Fury with all the affection he could muster. A Mated dragon had a higher sense of self-preservation then a non-Mated one. After all, when one of a Mated pair died, the other died too. There was no stopping it. To keep their Mate alive they would both have to live.

Hiccup struggled to his feel, his metal foot letting out a groan as he put pressure on it. Toothless disguised it with a roar just in time to keep Ragnars attention from floating to the side. The young human stumbled forward a step, leaning against the cliff wall for support.

'Leave!' The dragon ordered.

'I have to go to the nest.'

The next roar that was released was for him. Toothless forbid it. 'Leave!'

Hiccup disobeyed him.

The second he was out of harms way he felt Toothless lunge. He could see the battle in his head, as clearly as if he was seeing it with his own eyes. The swing of an axe, and the muscles his dragon used to dodge it. How quickly Toothless ran behind him, and the expression on Ragnars face when he noticed Hiccup retreating back, and realized that he'd lost one of his trump cards. Not that he cared. The smug look on his face said that he didn't need such a thing.

Hiccup pushed it away. There was nothing he could do to help in that battle, and he had his own mission. He made it to the door and pushed it open. If his body could have gotten any colder it would have.

Stonejaw had dug up the first layer of eggs. Eight eggs were smashed across the ground, with three more awaiting their own demise. Thankfully, the broken ones appeared to have been empty. The whole ones were each nestled in a shallow man-dug dip to prevent them from rolling. Hiccup didn't have time to react as the massive Viking brought his hammer down against the black surface with a sickening smack!

The egg cracked.

The fracture ran down the sides, and something inside pressed out against the walls.

Hiccup watched in horror, as a small black body broke free, and uncurled limp, unresponsive over the shards of shell.

Stonejaw laughed in triumph, raising his hammer for the final blow.

"NO!" Hiccup yelled, grabbing the shield next to the door, and throwing it and himself over the too-young hatchling. The hammer hit the shield, which struck Hiccup in turn, but he barely noticed. The dragon was too young! The dragon hadn't been ready to hatch. Had it been hurt by the blow? Was it dead? He couldn't tell if it was breathing or not.

The shield was ripped out of his hands, but Hiccup didn't move determined to protect the infant. "Get out of the way, Brat." Came a gruff voice, and a hand grabbed the back of his shirt.

Hiccup felt, rather then saw Toothless charge through the door and explode into the room. The furious dragon didn't waste a second before attacking the man who threatened his Mate.

Hiccup didn't hesitate either. Ignoring the pain in his abdomen, and how numb he was getting, he pulled the damp little body under his shirt, and raced outside. He hoped the shirt would be enough to protect it and keep it warm for at least a moment. The cold stuck him like a slap in the face. The snow was coming down even harder. 'We have to get somewhere safe.' He thought. 'Toothless!'

The dragon tossed him unconscious, barely breathing victim to the ground and rushed to his Mates side. He enveloped the boy beneath his wing, protecting him from the snow and the wind.

They couldn't fly away. Hiccups head was filled with a blow from Ragnars axe which had hit the saddle. There was no using it until it was fixed. Hiccup blindly reached for the place where it had broken, his hand encountering something hot and wet.

Blood.

"Toothless, you're bleeding. How bad is it?" He could feel that it ached, and there seemed to be a lot of blood, but Toothless reassured him that it wasn't life threatening. Not to a dragon.

"We have to get out of here." He said, just before Toothless pulled him closer. Ragnar appeared, blocking their only exit.

One side of the mans head was bleeding and he didn't look happy. "There's nowhere to go demon." He snarled. "I'm going to kill you; I'm going to kill your eggs; and I'm going to kill your mate. I will be the only one to have killed a Night Fury, and I will be the one responsible for eliminating all of the Night Furys."

Toothless growled. It was getting to risky. Hiccup was freezing. He was bleeding. The man still had his weapon. What could he do? He had to protect Hiccup!

"Hiccup!"

Two heads snapped up as another dragon swooped down into the field and landed.

It was Battleaxe. Astrid wasted no time jumping off and landed next to Toothless, her own axe ready for battle. Hiccup saw her in his Mates mind and pushed open the wing so that she could see him. "Hiccup!" She demanded "What is going on here?"

Other dragons landed. Stoick on Thor's Claw. Snotlout and his father on their dragons. Gobber astride his faithful BoneKnapper. "Son!" Stoick exclaimed, letting the others take attack position while he saw to his boy. "Are you ok Son? What happened?"

Hiccup smiled. It was over. He could see it in Ragnars face that he knew he couldn't handle them all. "I'm ok Dad. But he attacked us. He tried to kill Toothless and our children."

The village chief turned a red that made his hair quite jealous. "RAGNAR!" He roared, pushing his way to the front. "You dare to attack my sons and unborn grandchildren?"

The adrenalin faded as soon as the danger was over. Hiccup almost collapsed, but Toothless caught him, and he kept a good hold of the precious thing beneath his shirt.

"You can't be serious Stoick." The Dragon Killer started, in his most convincing tone. "I would never attack Hiccup. I was only defending myself from his dragon, when it attacked me. Of course Hiccup is only defending his mate, which I understand completely, but I am innocent."

Stoick didn't wasted the moment to confirm with his son before addressing the traitor. "I learned years ago to trust my son. And I learned years ago to trust Toothless. If they say that you attacked them, then you attacked them. Now drop your weapons and surrender, or I won't be held responsible for what will happen."

Toothless nudged the thing beneath Hiccups shirt with his nose, while Ragnar threw down his weapons and surrendered. No longer quite so panicked, the young Viking could just feel the body expand and contract with very shallow breaths. It was alive at least. "Is he going to be ok?" Hiccup asked his Mate concerned. It was so early, and the dragon was so small.

Toothless didn't reply. Maybe. It was too soon to tell. He knew Hiccup would be upset if the infant didn't make it, but all he could do was be at their side.

Ragnar was detained, and Gobber took him away, clenched in his Boneknadders claws. Astrid went with him after demanding that Hiccup give her the whole story at another time. Snotlout, and his father removed Stonejaw when Hiccup told them where he was, and those who remained withdrew to the cave.

"When the Elder told me Toothless had taken off like he had, and I knew something must have happened." Stoick explained. That was the reason they had arriving at all. He was the first to enter the cave and clutched his fists at the sight of the broken shells. "They didn't find any of the real ones did they?" He asked.

Toothless helped the boy inside; leaving his side only once the boy was settled, and only to fix the nest. Hiccup straightened up a little so that Stoick could easily see that there was something under his clothes. "One."

The older man paled, gripping his son's shoulder. Hiccup looked up at his with a pained expression, looking almost on the verge of tears. "Is he… going to be ok?" The man asked.

Hiccup swallowed, looking down. "We don't know. He might not make it."

Stoick inhaled sharply. He wanted to stay and help his son, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to be any help. And with the storm the way it was, it was already risky to be flying, and he didn't want to wait until it got worse.

Toothless finished the nest, and pulled Hiccups bedroll into place before calling him again. He could feel certain parts of his Mate were numb from the cold and he wanted to warm him before something serious happened.

Stoick made Hiccup look at him. "The best think you can do is keep him, and yourself, warm. Get into bed. I'll check on you when the storm passes."

"Thanks Dad." Hiccup said, not even waiting until he left to crawl under a strong black wing.

Toothless raised his body temperature so that the concealed space warmed up faster. Hiccup's hands, face, and feet burned from the dramatic change, but Hiccup just sat through it until it passed. Then he stripped off his shirt and used it to wipe the little dragon down.

The edge of Toothless wing lifted just enough that Hiccup could see what he was doing. The hatchling looked a lot like Toothless, but so much smaller. As well, the tailfins and spines were missing. Toothless told him those normally developed after hatching.

Hiccup checked the little one over carefully, and to his relief didn't find a single external injury. He looked at Toothless who was watching him. "He is too small, isn't he?"

'All hatchlings small.' The dragon answered, then reached forward and nuzzled him comfortingly. 'Yes. Is very small.' Then he made Hiccup as aware of his weariness as possible, by sending back the feelings that he was receiving.

Hiccup caught himself before his exhaustion knocked him right out. "Alright." He muttered, nestling the baby dragon between the two of them, and laying down. 'I'll go to sleep…'

That night he didn't dream. Too cold, and tired, and after everything that happened, his mind and body determined the best way to process it was to shut down for a night. The storm raged outside for hours, not letting up until well into the day, quite a while before Hiccup stirred. The young Viking was awakened by a sudden breeze down his unprotected spine. He groaned. Toothless laughed above him. Then there was a soft touch to his face.

When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was two unfamiliar, and far too beautiful, big green eyes watching him curiously.

Ta-da! Yeys! The baby lives, the bad guy has been defeated, and all the loose ends have been tied up! (I think)! All that is left is the epilog. Tell me what you think! Oh, and any ideas for baby names? I already have some, but you guys can beat me out by offering something I like better.

(1) Before anyone gets any ideas: No, Hiccup is not pregnant. Like that would happen now.

Comments make the world go round! And they light a fire y'know.

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