AN: First sorry this is a day late, but the site has been playing up lately, but I WILL put one up tomorrow and continue the regular updates.
And second, slight warning, this is another long(ish) chapter but hope you like it :)
(Astrid's POV)
Astrid was running through the forest, every now and then looking behind her to check if Useless was following her.
She was just coming up to and climbing over a fallen tree when she felt something grab her arm and began to feel herself be lighted off the ground.
"AGH... Great Odin's ghost," she cursed "Ah this is it... AAAGGGHHH..."
Hiccup brought Toothless over to one of the tallest trees and told him to drop Astrid onto the branches before landing himself.
"HICCUP! Get me DOWN from here!" she ordered dangling from the branch.
"You have to give me a chance to explain," Hiccup said.
"I am not listening to ANYTHING you have to say!" Astrid said making her way to the trunk of the tree to get down herself.
"Then I wont speak," Hiccup said quickly "Just let me show you. Please Astrid..."
Feeling that there was really no other 'safe' way down, Astrid heaved herself up and slowly if not a bit scared got onto the beast's back.
"Now get me down," she ordered.
"Toothless, down. Gently." Hiccup said patting his friends head.
This will teach that girl not to hurt My brother... Noche thought as he spread his wings.
"See? Nothing to be afraid of..." Hiccup said to Astrid calmly before he screamed in surprise at how fast they were was going.
All the wile Astrid was screaming in fright almost falling off if she hadn't grabbed hold of Hiccup who was screaming Toothless' name and telling him off for all the stunts he was doing.
After the top speed dives, the diving into the sea, and the spinning Noche heard the word he wanted to hear from the girl.
"Ok I'm sorry," she said "I'm sorry. Just get me off of this thing."
With one final spin, Noche spread his wings, caught the up draft and they were now hovering getting their senses back.
'That's better,' he said kindly 'Now let me show you the other side of being a dragon.'
Checking his riders were ready, Noche began to climb into the clouds.
(Astrid's POV)
Not feeling the wind stinging her face anymore, or her stomach try and get to her mouth, Astrid slowly opened her eyes to see what was going on and saw clouds all around her.
Unhooking her legs from Hiccup, trusting the dragon now, she leaned back slightly as she saw the wonders only the birds, the dragons and the gods can see.
After a bit Astrid slowly reached out and ran her hand along one of the clouds loving how it felt against her hand.
They had been flying for hours watching the setting sun, as they go through one lot of clouds, coming out the other side to the night sky and the Northern Lights welcoming them.
Then the most wonderful thing of all came up as they came to the end of the cloud they were flying over.
Berk.
Astrid had lived there all her life, she had climbed it's hills, explored it's forests, swam in it's seas, traveled every inch.
But never thought she's see it like this.
Noche looked behind him and saw Astrid was in fact enjoying this flight and wrap her arms around his brother, but it didn't seem in a threatening way, so he let it go.
After a bit longer Astrid spoke up.
"Alright, I admit it... This is pretty cool. It's amazing," she said then looked to Noche "He's amazing." she said patting him gently.
Deciding to do some more exploring, Noche turned away from the island and began to fly over the sea.
"So what now?" Astrid asked realizing something "Hiccup your final exam is tomorrow. You know you're gonna have to kill a..." she stopped as Noche's ears started to play about, but what ever she was talking about, was not what got his attention.
What did was a call and a voice that made his scales shiver.
'Come to me my subjects... Your Queen is hungry...'
Not being able to resit it, Noche took a sudden dive into the clouds of fog, and began to search for whatever was giving that call.
"Toothless what's happening?" Hiccup asked but getting a feeling that it had to do with that hissing he was hearing all around them.
"What is it?" he asked being told by Toothless to be quiet so he can concentrate, nearly being crashed into by a Monstrous Nightmare who had a sheep in his claws.
"Get down," Hiccup whispered to Astrid, his foot on it's own, controlling the foot pedal to the tail making them nearly crash into a Nadder who screamed at them.
More and more calls were ringing out all around them Hiccup looking around somehow recognizing each call and what kind of dragon it was before they were visible.
Thousands and thousands of dragons were now all around them boxing them in, there was no way out.
"What's going on?" Astrid asked scared.
"I don't know. Toothless," he said trying to get the dragons attention and get it away from the hissing noise. "You've gotta get us out of here bud," he said placing a hand on the dragon's head which the dragon shook of right away.
Another call from a different Nightmare made Hiccup look up and see it carrying a yak.
"It looks like they're hulling in their kill..." he said slowly.
"Err... what does that make us?" Astrid asked.
Hiccup was about to answer when a Zippleback came up next to them, spotted them and narrowed their eyes to Hiccup.
The next thing the Vikings knew they were diving down towards the sea. Sea stacks and even more fog than the first time Hiccup and Toothless did this blocking their vision, and yet... again... Hiccup managed to function the tail to where it was needed just before they were going to hit a stack.
After a bit an island with a tall mountain that once looked like it was a volcano began to show itself.
Coming together the dragons all began to enter the mountain.
What was on the other side made everyone's eyes widen.
There were dragons everywhere - this had to be the nest...
"What my dad wouldn't give to find this," Hiccup said quietly looking all around, while Astrid was still stunned and Toothless was trying to find a place where an intruder to someone else's nest can hide until they could leave, finally finding a ledge with a rock they could hide behind and yet still view the nest.
"Well it's satisfying to know that all of our food's been dumped down a hole," Hiccup said seeing all the dragon come in with food and then dropping it into the mouth of the volcano, still hearing the hissing. Though now it was slightly different, as if it was agreeing to something.
With each piece of food a fellow dragon brought back a call of 'You're safe this time,' came out to them, from the hole, Noche realized, making him worried.
What could possibly need to have this much food and be this cruel for their nest to be like... This? Dark... Cold... Cramped...
"They're not eating any of it," Astrid said confused.
Just then a Rock-Eater came buzzing in, hovered over the hole and spat up one single undersized fish.
'THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!' a cry ran around the mountain, causing everyone to step back and hide from it, as if they were afraid, as a ginormous head came up out of the fog and in one gulp swallowed the Rock-Eater whole before slowly defending into the pit again.
"What is that?" Astrid asked stunned, as Hiccup felt an urge to get away from it watching all the dragons around him do the same thing.
Just before the beast was about to return to it's now stolen dinner it came back up and started sniffing.
"Alright bud we gotta get out of here," Hiccup said in a fast voice. "Now."
Quickly Noche took off just missing the Seadragonus-Giganticus-Maximus' jaws.
Trying hard Noche struggled to get away from the beast.
Suddenly a Two-Header, the one from outside, got between them and the Seadragonus-Giganticus-Maximus, being taken instead.
As fast as he could, Noche flew out with the scurry of the other dragons as the Seadragonus-Giganticus-Maximus sank back down, and rushed back to Berk.
(AN I'm not calling the Red Death 'Queen' because she is not that to Noche Oscura)
On the way back the teenagers were still trying to work out what they saw at the Nest.
"What was that thing and what was it doing to all those other dragons is what I don't get," Hiccup said as they were nearing the cove.
"No it totally makes sense," Astrid said understanding it "It's like a giant beehive. They're the workers and that's their queen, it controls them. Lets find your dad..." she said jumping off.
"No. No not yet..." Hiccup said jumping off as well and running up to Astrid "They'll... kill Toothless. Astrid we have to think this through carefully."
"Hiccup, we just discovered the Dragons Nest," Astrid said reminding him "The thing we've been after since Vikings first sailed here. And you want to keep it a secret? To protect you PET dragon are you serious?"
Turning around Hiccup gave her a look that showed her he was more serous than ever on this and said "Yes."
"Ok," Astrid said realizing Hiccup's bond towards Toothless "So what do we do?" she asked.
"Just give me until tomorrow," Hiccup said not looking her in the eye "I'll figure something out."
"Ok," Astrid said before punching Hiccup on the arm, making him clamp it to numb the pain "That's for kidnapping me..." she said.
Hiccup then turned to Toothless who was having a drink from the pond asking for help, but all the dragon did was shake his head, as if saying 'You're on your own now.'
After she brushed her hair away from her face, Astrid then grabbed Hiccup's shirt, brought him forward and kissed his lips.
"That's for... Everything else."
With that the blonde turned and left, after collecting her axe.
Noche was looking at the girl saying in his head that he'll never get Human love, as he looked over Hiccup's shoulder.
"Wha... What are you looking at?" he asked sighing.
"Hey Toothless," Hiccup asked after thinking for a bit. "You know when I said that 'We're leaving' this afternoon?" he asked getting a nod from Noche.
"Well that's because you've taught me too much in the ways dragons work, and they now think I'm this great Dragon Training trainee that can make any dragon fall to him." he said explaining blocking his ears and looking away from Noche who was rolling around on his back laughing.
"Yeah well the best trainee gets chosen to..." Hiccup said stopping halfway through the sentence not sure how to say this to his best friend.
'Chosen to what Hiccup?' Noche asked not feeling any fun to this now and coming over.
"Never mind," the boy said going over to the basket he brought with him and taking it to the cave Noche liked to rest in, in case this plan he just thought up didn't work.
"Just... You trust Astrid now right?" he asked changing the subject Noche thought but nodded.
"If something happens to me, at any time, what ever it may be..." Hiccup said reaching out to everything "Will you let Astrid take care of you?"
Confused as to why this was coming out right now, right after Hiccup was just talking about chosen to do... something, it took a few seconds before Noche nodded slowly agreeing to it.
"Thanks Bud," Hiccup said hugging his friend as much as he could since this might be the last time he'll get to do so.
"Good night," he said stepping back and running off too.
After he was gone, Noche looked up to the sky and looked towards the star picture of the great Draco and sighed.
'Why do I feel something bad is going to happen tomorrow?' he asked curling up drifting off to sleep, still hearing the cries and the screams of fear from the other dragons from that nest.