The dragon - a hideous zippleback - pawed the ground in front of Toothless slightly. It was time for the night fury to get onto one of the less fun parts of being the alpha of a group of dragons trying to settle into a new home: taking requests.

I'll see what I can do, Toothless promised, and the dragon he was addressing nodded before rushing off to tell his friends of the alpha's verdict. Toothless had been doing this a lot lately: promising to see what he could do. It was much easier than actually dedicating himself to any given task, and besides, none of the other dragons had noticed what he was doing yet.

Again, Toothless? You'll need to actually take action sooner or later. Well, most of the other dragons hadn't caught on. Cloudjumper was a bit of an exception anyway; he was one of the oldest dragons to decide to settle on Berk - his loyalty to Valka was too strong to just leave her to go and find a new nest - so he was one of the most intelligent.

I'll get round to it eventually, Toothless waved away the older dragon's concern, Look, I'll build it now!

He took a small pile of twigs and tried to fashion it into a cave-like shape. Cloudjumper watched on, unimpressed, as the structure failed and collapsed in on itself.

Stupid nest! Toothless growled, sending a quick plasma blast to set the bunch of twigs alight. Cloudjumper laughed at the alpha's childish petulance.

Maybe you could get your rider to help, he suggested peaceably, patting the embers to put them out. He seems to enjoy helping the dragons.

He enjoys helping everyone. Toothless countered. Well, I guess I could, but I don't want to give him too much to do. Remember what happened last time? he prompted, both dragons shuddering at the thought.

But still, it made sense to enlist the help of someone who'd dedicated the past five years to dragon-proofing Berk for assistance on this type of task. I'll ask him. Toothless decided.

Toothless didn't bring the nest problem up the next time he and Hiccup met. It was time for their daily flight, and he didn't want anything to spoil the fun. Unfortunately, Hiccup knew him too well to not notice that he was thinking about something.

"What is it bud?" Hiccup asked, turning the tailfin gears to set Toothless into a glide as he patted the dragon.

Nothing. Toothless sighed. Hiccup didn't respond, and it was hard to see his expression when the Viking was sat on his back. Okay, it's about the dragons.

"What about the dragons?" Ah, there it was. Ever the worrier, Berk's new chief was already fearing the worst. "Was it -"

Nothing's wrong! Toothless snapped, breaking Hiccup's panicked reverie. They want a new nest, though. I was thinking of asking you for help in building one.

Hiccup hummed slightly. "Makes sense. They're used to all the ice. Bit of a shame you can't just make a nest with your breath, hey bud?"

Toothless nodded. Yeah. So, you'll help?

"Of course!"

This one might have another part to it later, with the actual building.