Hiccup gave stunned looks. Toothless hatching a dragon egg! But Toothless is a guy, who is his mate? Was it another NightFury? Hiccup was excited having his dragon be a soon to be father. Ech knew deep down that Clovis was the mother. How did those two dragons sneak off and... mate without either Hiccup's or her knowledge. At night when they were all sleeping, perhaps.
Hiccup tried to get a better view of the egg. Snap! The NightFury lifted his head and stared to where the trio was hiding. However he couldn't see them and he growled. His teeth bare and wings were slightly spread. Hiccup looked down at his feet and saw the twig he stepped on and groaned. So much for being stealthy. Toothless gave a roar towards the vikings and was about to breathe his firebolt when Hiccup burst out of his hiding place. Toothless immediatly halted and perked his ears up and purred.
"H-Hey Toothless... Sorry to barge in on you... Well we followed you and Wow! An Egg!" Hiccup walked toward the egg and his dragon let him, but was cautious, even though it was his best friend.
"Toothless. This is your egg right?" Hiccup asked with a wide grin. Toothless gave a slight nod.
"This is remarkable. A NightFury having an egg... with-" Astrid was cut off by Ech who also had a smile.
"Clovis... Clovis's dragonling." Toothless gave a happy, but mournful roar. Yes, Toothless loved Clovis. Ech wasn't the only one devestated when she died, but he had the egg to take care of so he couldn't be depressed forever.
The trio and Toothless agreed to head back and not tell anyone untill the dragon hatched. Which they were quite unsure when it would. Maybe it would hatch in several days or months. Regardless the group would go back everyday and check up on the egg from the cove which they decided to call it Clover Cove, in honor of Clovis. Toothless would always give the egg a nice warm nest while he was away, surprisingly another animal has yet to steal the egg. Perhaps a dragon egg isn't a delicacy or the animals are frightened of the NightFury... or both.
About two weeks later when the group arrived at Clover Cove the egg was moving slightly. It was about to hatch. Ech was excited she had never seen a dragon egg hatch before. She wanted to get a closer look, but Astrid held her back. She told Ech how dragon eggs explode upon hatching, an odd, but natural behavior. They explode... well at least Ech learned something new.
As if on cue the dragon egg exploded. Dirt and smoke covered the area where it blew. It slowly died down and a small, black dragon with four heads appeared. It was a Snaptrapper, like Clovis, but had the dark colored scales like Toothless. Another characteristic Ech knew was that it was a male! If only Clovis was here to see her baby dragon, but Toothless was still there he would take care of it... but Ech would to. Ech felt an instantaneous love for the small dragonling. It reminded her so much of her deceased dragon, but also of Toothless. The dragonling gave a tiny, roar and Toothless rushed over with a small fish in his jaws. He fed the his baby and nudged it playfully.
"It looks like Toothless and Clovis! This is amazing! I've never seen a mixure of dragon species before." Implied Astrid, Hiccup nodded agreeing with her. Ech was all ready trying to think of names for the new dragon. Like Clovis, it was going to be difficult. Four heads with different personalities, but she also needed a name to adress them all by.
Ech approached the tiny dragon and petted one of the heads. It purred, similar to Toothless's purr and licked Ech's hand. She giggled and soon the other heads began licking her hand. Suddenly one of the bit her hand. She yelped and pulled it back. Toothless was quick to respond and scolded the young dragon who quickly had a remoreful look in its gleaming emerald eyes. The wound wasn't serious, tiny bite marks showed where exactly she was bitten. She did hope that the dragonling didn't all ready have the poison glands developed or else she would be in trouble. Hiccup came up to Ech and inspected her injury.
"Doesn't look to bad. We'll treat it when we get back to Berk. We should also take the new dragon too. Everyone will be excited... Especially Fishlegs." Ech chuckled when she thought of the walking dragon book enthusiast.
"I agree. C'mon it is a time to celebrate!" Astrid said happily.