I Own Nothing

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Chapter 31

Radamar

Toothless wanted to visit Hiccup first thing that morning, but Menomem dismissively told him he was better off spending time with his fellows and equals. Sensing that ignoring her might put Hiccup in danger, he accepted Radamar's offer to show him around the caverns.

"Hiccup can handle himself," he kept thinking. "He can handle himself."

The tunnels for the most part were long, dark, and mostly featureless, so there were few things worth looking at. Toothless eyed his tail self-consciously. When the Riders had split up Hiccup had put the black tail fin on him, the one that allowed him to fly by himself. Toothless never liked wearing that one, but he knew it was sensible to use it sometimes, and now he was grateful. Because the fin was black, none of the other dragons had paid the slightest attention to it or suspected anything out of the ordinary about it. It would have meant some potentially dangerous explanations if the other dragons found out he was missing a tail fin and how it had happened. He wondered how long he could keep it a secret.

"So what's the outside world like?" Radamar suddenly asked him.

Toothless was so deep in thought he hardly registered what she said. "What?"

"What's the outside world really like? I've never seen any of it."

"Don't they let you go flying here?" he asked sharply.

"Oh yes…on certain nights when the white stone is at its most minimal. And even then, we aren't allowed to go too far, and only a few of us are allowed out at a time. The rest of the time, we fly around the Cavern for exercise. It's large enough, though we mostly just make laps."

"That feels wrong," Toothless said, "Dragons should be free to go where they wish and can, not live like moles in caves forever." Great fish and eels, he sounded like Queen Mala!

"Is that what you do? Go where you wish and can?"

"It was, anyway," Toothless muttered darkly, "I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen now that I'm here,"

"So what is the outside world really like?" she asked a third time, and just as eagerly as before.

"It's…well, it's pretty big." he said. It was hard to summarize the whole world in a single sentence. "I've only seen some of it."

"How much?"

"More than I can keep track of. I've seen deserts, glaciers, mountains, fields, forests, oceans, jungles…"

"What are those?"

"Do you just use different words for them or do you honestly not know? A jungle is…well, there are a lot of trees, and vines, and it's usually pretty hot and humid, the insects are huge…"

She shook her head. "It doesn't sound familiar to me."

"But there's a jungle just a few islands away!" Toothless exclaimed, "You've never even seen that?"

She shook her head again. "Like I said, we aren't allowed to go far,"

"Says who? Your brother?"

"My what?"

"The Alpha—sorry, I mean the Alepha,"

"You don't know the words the Notoraquin use? The words of your own species?"

Toothless shook his head. "I've never seen one until yesterday."

"Well, Salistus is my Vav, and the Alepha. Menomem is our hoah."

"And you're his plorip?" Toothless tried his hand at using the language.

She laughed. "No, no, you said it wrong. Menomem would say 'plorip,' but Salistus would say it as 'plorip'." With the first version her tone rose as she spoke, but with the second version it fell. The same word was used for daughter and sister, but the sound was different depending on the usage.

"But as I was saying, who says we can't fly where we want?" Toothless demanded.

"It was the law long before Salistus became Alepha," she said. She looked down the tunnel. "The First Dragon created us, back when time was new, and decreed that we, the Notoraquin, would rule all dragons with one of us as the Alepha. Over time others took the position from us, but we took it back. But the umanu grew stronger and wanted more of everything. At first they feared us, but soon came to realize that they could use us for their own gain, especially the Alepha."

"Whoever controls the Alpha controls them all," Toothless muttered darkly.

She eyed him curiously. "Who said that?"

"A monster who once tried to do just that."

"He was right, except we say Alepha, not—well, anyway, the umanu wanted to control us. The Alepha of his time tried to resist, but after one too many attempts to capture him, he saw that hiding was the only way we would be safe. So he summoned all the Notoraquin to join him here in secret and we have stayed here ever since. And to ensure we survived, strict precautions and rules have been made,"

"So he decided that instead of facing the trouble everyone would just hide from it?" Toothless exclaimed in disgust.

"You don't understand. The Alepha was betrayed by the umanu! He wanted peace with them, but they kept coming for him and killing our kind! What choice did he have if we were to survive?"

Toothless mellowed a little. "All right. Perhaps at the time it was the best decision. Perhaps at the time there was no other choice. But that doesn't mean that we have to live so secretly now! Things have changed!"

"Have they?"

"Yes! On Ber—I mean, I've seen places where humans and dragons are living together, side by side, looking after each other, and forming bonds as strong as any creature can possibly have."

"Are you sure they are not just enslaved?" she asked skeptically.

"Of course I'm sure! I've lived in some of these places! And so has Hiccup! Isn't the fact that I let him ride me proof enough that not all humans are out to kill us? And we've been taking down those who are!

She still looked skeptical.

"Look, a few years ago we lived in as much fear and secrecy as you do. But we found a chance and took it, and now we live in the open and in harmony! And we're converting others to live in the same way. Sure, we've hit a few rough spots, but we're still succeeding! Once a particular group of hunters is finished off, nobody in Europe is going to stand against dragons and humans living together, and such lifestyles already exist in much of Asia."

She still looked skeptical.

"All right, if you don't believe me, I'll show you. I'll show all of you. We can leave right now." Hiccup had used this method on humans with good results, so he thought using it on dragons would surely work too.

She looked half inclined to accept the offer, but pulled back. "I would need permission from Salistus. And I'm sure he would refuse, especially if Agaruba was there. Agaruba hates the umanu. He flew out too far when he was younger and got attacked by some. He still resents the scars they gave him."

"I'm guessing the scars to his pride were more painful than the ones to his skin,"

She shrugged. "I would not know. But I do know he would gladly kill your umanu—Hiccup, was it? A strange name."

"He hates it, actually."

"Then why keep it?"

Toothless considered the answer. "At first he kept it because everyone else used it and he had no choice. Later, he abandoned it but never came up with another. And now, once again, everyone else uses it so he's kinda stuck with it. Rather like how your Vav tried to stick me with the name 'Emaracluse'," he added with a grimace.

"You don't like it?" she asked in surprise.

"It's not my name. Like you just said, if I hate it why keep it?"

"The Alepha said you should!"

"And the Alepha is always right?" Toothless asked.

She looked at him in amazement.

"What? Are we not allowed to think for ourselves too?"

She looked very uncomfortable. "It's allowed, but…not encouraged where the Alepha is concerned. Their word is our command, as you know. Except for the First Law. Even the Alepha would not dare go against that."

"What's the First Law? I've been wondering about that."

"No Notoraquin may kill another. Anyone who breaks that law must die."

"Well that's comforting to know."

"Yes. The First Dragon gave us that law, and we must keep to it to ensure our numbers will grow."

Toothless looked surprised. "Have they? How many are there now?"

"With you now among us, 17." She spoke as if this was a good thing.

Toothless was aghast at this. "So few?"

"The Notoraquin only produce at most two eggs at one time. And when they do, they do not produce again until another tenth of life has passed first. Ah, here we are. This is the Cavern."

The Cavern was just a large room. Certainly it was very longer, wider, and higher than anything adjoining it, but aside from the size there was little to distinguish it from any other room in this series of caves. Having lived at the Sanctuary, which had had smaller but much more appealing chambers, Toothless was not very impressed.

"Still," he reminded himself, "we had Whispering Deaths to dig for us and Hiccup's artistic sense. These dragons didn't. I shouldn't expect them to create a palace. All the same, say what you will about humans, but they sure know how to build,"

Radamar looked at him expectedly. "So? What do you think of it?"

Toothless gave a nonchalant answer and asked what they ate here. Radamar pointed to the bottom of the Cavern, which turned out to be completely flooded.

"This connects to the outside," she explained, "fish often end up in here, and we take what we can get."

"Do you catch enough?" His own appetite was considerable, and he could not imagine there would ever be enough fish in a lake for 16 Night Furies.

"We do," she replied.

He soon found out that 'enough' by their standards was considerably less than his own. After catching two decent sized fish he was told to stop, but he was still hungry. He noticed out of all of them, Salistus the Alpha ate the most.

"Emaracluse, where's my new armor? I want it!"

Toothless suggested he ought to speak to Hiccup about that, and added that, while Hiccup was a genius with invention, even he could not build a full suit of armor overnight even if he had all the materials.

"Where is the umanu?" the Alpha demanded impatiently, "Radamar, do you know? Go and bring him here!"

Radamar nodded quickly and hurried off. She had expected to find the umanu sleeping, but he was wide awake and looking at something. Next to him was a stick of wax with a tongue of flame on the top.

"What is this?" she asked, forgetting her orders, which did not have a time requirement anyway.

"I'm just looking at one of my journals," he replied.

"What's a journal? And what is this thing holding the fire?" she looked at the candle in amazement.

"It's molded wax with a wick. We humans can't make breathe fire, so we had to look for other methods, like candles and flints. And a journal is what I write and draw in."

"Write?"

Hiccup showed her some of the pages. She could make nothing of the writing, but the sketches fascinated her. "What's this?"

"It's a seagull. I saw it on a beach a week ago. Haven't you seen seagulls before?"

She shook her head and looked at another page. "And what's this? Another umanu, I can tell, but they look…different from you,"

"That's Astrid. She's my mate." He strongly disliked using that term to describe Astrid, because it sounded crude to him, but he guessed she would understand it better than 'wife'.

"You never said you had a mate!"

"Nobody asked." He had been expecting that one, and Radamar was taken aback.

"I suppose that's true. What's that stuff coming out of her head?"

"Hair," he pointed to his own head.

"What's it for? And why is hers longer than yours?"

Hiccup shrugged. "It helps keep our heads warm. And I get mine cut more frequently than she does." He smiled slightly, "When I was a boy some other kids tried to shave my head while I was sleeping. My kalk, as you'd call him, was furious and for a change he didn't have anything to blame me for."

"Did he blame you for lots of things?"

Hiccup snorted and put on his best impression of Stoick. "'Every time you step outside disaster falls.' His own words. But in his defense, they were true to an extent."

"My hoah would say 'every time you step outside disaster falls upon you,'" Radamar said, "she acts like everything outside these caves is diseased."

"Do you agree with her?"

"I don't know, because I hardly know anything about what's out there! But Salistus agrees with her and he can forbid me to go out if he wants to. Oh! I forgot! Salistus wants to see you about his armor!"

"I sure hope he's in a good mood," Hiccup groaned as he followed her. Like Toothless he was underwhelmed by the Cavern when he saw it, but he was focusing more on what to say to Salistus.

Toothless nervously watched him approach the Alpha. Agaruba was standing close at hand, while Menomen at once moved in between Hiccup and Radamar.

"Well? Where's my armor?" demanded the Alpha.

"Like every umanu, this one proved treacherous and has failed to deliver on its promise," Agaruba sneered.

Hiccup smiled. "You make the armor then. Have fun! Look, my Alepha, I don't have any armor for you, and unless I have the proper tools I can't hope to make it."

"And you want to go fetch these tools and bring back an army to wipe us out! Is that it?" shouted Agaruba.

"Well that's not going to happen!" Hiccup laughed, "We're on an island! How am I supposed to get off it? And even if I did somehow escape these caves, how far do you think I'd get before one of you caught up?" He was still working on a solution to these problems.

The Alpha laughed too. "He's right, Agaruba! He can't possibly escape from us! So what do you need to make my amazing armor?"

Toothless was very relieved to see the Alpha was in a good mood and taking Hiccup's side. But the mention of Hiccup trying to escape made him very uneasy, and it was not made any better by what the Alpha said next.

"What have we to worry about anyway? He'll die sooner or later, and it's not as though Emaracluse is going anywhere! I can stop him, remember?"

Toothless looked up at the cave ceiling. He had known this ever since they had come but now it seemed to really sink in. They were prisoners here, and their only liberty was the freedom to pace about their cell.

"You know, Toothless is a Beta, right?" Hiccup said carefully, "He has a nest of his own that needs to be looked after,"

"Unless this nest includes Notoraquin, it is of no concern to us. Our concern is our own kind, first and foremost." Menomem said.

Toothless groaned. Lying would do them no good here because they had already made it known that they had never seen another Night Fury before.

He realized another dragon was behind him and tried to cover up the groan with a cough.

"Something in your throat?"

"Nothing serious,"

"I do not believe I introduced myself, but I am Sclepus. I was just wondering if I could ask you something."

Toothless was hardly in the mood for questions but gave his consent.

"You see, Emaracluse, you've been where no one else has. Have you seen any more of our species at any time? Any at all?" Sclepus looked very earnest and anxious as he spoke.

Toothless glumly shook his head. "Until I saw Radamar yesterday, I've never seen a Night Fury apart from myself."

Sclepus looked like he was battling between disappointment and acceptance. Toothless felt compelled to ask him about it.

"My Vav and his mate left this nest a long time ago. I've never seen them since. I—I know the outside world is a dangerous place and there's a chance they're—well, when I heard you were from the outside, I thought maybe you'd come across them at some point. Clearly I was wrong—I mean, I know it's a large world and anything could have happened, I know I've been bracing myself for the inevitable, but still…" he trailed off and looked at the ground. "I'm sorry. I should have known better than to get my hopes up."

"Why did they leave?" Toothless asked.

He bowed his head. "They were like many are at that age: curious, unsatisfied, and rebellious. Rather like Radamar. They did not like being told we must stay here, they wanted to see the world, they disagreed with how we lived, and they especially resented the Alepha—he was the Kalk of Salistus and Radamar in those days—telling them what they could and could not do. So one day came one argument too many, and they left. The Alepha let them go—he was glad to be rid of them and felt they would prove him right. They never returned. That was nearly a third of life ago."

"A what?"

"You do not know how we measure our ages? Of course you would not, I'm sorry, I should not have expected you to." He looked at Toothless carefully, "Judging by your scale growth, I'd say you too have passed about a fourth of your life, meaning three fourths remain to you—or so we expect, at any rate." He looked at Toothless thoughtfully, "Your eyes…their shape looks familiar…" he shook his body as if snapping out of a trance, "Sorry I…I should leave you to your friends. Thank you for your time."

Toothless got out a short warble and moved away unsteadily. He felt like Dragon Nip had been shoved in his face again. He staggered over to Hiccup, who was still talking with the Alpha. Hiccup took one look at him and knew that something was wrong. "Toothless, what it is?"

"I think I've just learned—" Toothless pressed his head against Hiccup's stomach, gently pushing his human to the ground. Hiccup began to pet the dragon's head. Unfortunately, the other Night Furies watching were disgusted.

"An umanu petting one of us!"

"Disgusting! Shameful!"

"Get away from him!" Menomem shouted. She turned to the Alpha, "Well? Tell them to separate!"

"I—er, of course! Separ—you know, what my hoah told you!" the Alpha spluttered. Toothless did not budge. "Separate, you two! I command it!" his voice rose higher, as if he was afraid they would not obey him. He need not have worried. Toothless, very reluctantly but with forced obedience, backed away from Hiccup. Hiccup stood up and made to follow, but Agaruba leapt in front of him, his teeth visible.

"This dream is turning into a nightmare," Hiccup whispered hoarsely. With one remorseful look at Toothless, he turned away and made for the cavern exit. He paused, wanting to say something forceful and rude to the Alpha, but held his tongue. Instead he thought "All right, Alpha. You win this round. But there'll be more to come."

In that instant, Hiccup stopped caring about research or anything else except getting himself and his best friend out of this place. But that was problematic, for the reasons he had given earlier. The main issue was the Alpha's mind control over Toothless. In theory, this power could control Toothless at any time in any location on the Earth, and now that the Alpha knew Toothless existed, he would almost certainly make use of that control, no matter where they were.

Hiccup had come up with some options. Most of them involved getting the Alpha in a position to agree to never use his powers on Toothless, whether by sacred oaths, politely asking, bribes, or threats. The first three seemed highly unlikely to work for long, especially with Menomem and Agaruba around to get the Alpha to reconsider. The fourth option seemed incredibly distasteful to Hiccup. It would prove Agaruba was right to mistrust humans. Another possibility was to have Toothless challenge the Alpha and take his place, as he had done against the Red Death to become a Beta all those years ago. Hiccup had no doubt Toothless could win against Salistus, assuming Salistus fought in person. The problem was Hiccup did not know the rules of combat for the position of Alpha. He knew the rules of combat for the position of Beta, but he did not know if they were the same. And he had no way of finding out unless someone challenged the Alpha, and nobody but Toothless was likely to do that.

He thought over his options again and again and concluded his best hopes were in threatening the Alpha or having Toothless become the new Alpha. But first he needed to be in a position where he could make threats.

He went to a pouch in his clothes and pulled out a vial of Nadder venom, which he drank half of. Ever since the failed attempts to poison Ruffnut and him, he continued as much as he dared to build up and retain immunity to such poisons. Glancing through his pouch he found he had a few more vials left. He wondered how many more he would drink before he got out of there.

Speaking of Nadders, Hiccup had assumed that Astrid and Stormfly would appear on the scene sooner or later. He guessed that once they realized he and Toothless were missing, Stormfly would sniff them out. After all, Toothless had found his unconscious body pretty easily and Stormfly was the better tracker. But his wife and her dragon had yet to show up. This made him even more worried, because he knew only something very serious could prevent them from finding him. And this worry made him even more anxious to get out of there and find out what was going on.

Their absence forced him to confront the possibility of him escaping alone. He did not like the idea of leaving Toothless behind one bit, but he feared he might have no choice. He felt it would be easy to get out of these caves, and maybe he could get off the island using a log for a makeshift raft. At worst he could risk swimming, though he was a rotten swimmer. The problem in this scenario was that even if he got off the island, he was still thousands of leagues from home with no means to get there and, even worse, the Night Furies were sure to come after him. Even if they were all in poor physical shape, they could still probably fly faster than he could run. So if he was to escape, he needed a way to put the Night Furies out of action for a while.

"And back home there's still that bounty and Viggo to deal with," he said crossly, "Just when I thought the Gods were starting to like me, this happens!"

Since he could not be with Hiccup, Toothless wanted to be alone. But the Alpha ordered Radamar to continue showing him about the caves. Menomem decided to come along with them, probably because she did not trust Toothless around her plorip after his display of affection for the umanu. Toothless was hardly in the mood to care.

They passed a few rooms that were clearly nests. "Gusugag lives there with Jej, his plorip," Radamar explained. In this instance 'plorip' meant daughter. "Jej and Nen are the only Notoraquin hatchlings right now. They'll receive their full names after they fly for the first time,"

"They're our hope for the future," Menomem said proudly.

"Some future," Toothless muttered.

"What was that?"

"What kind of future?" he said loudly, "What kind of life is this, never flying when you want to, living underground all the time, never feeling sunlight on your wings, never travelling to strange places full of things you've ever seen before? What kind of a life is this?"

"A safe one," Menomem said coldly, "one where we do not take risks that threaten our safety. One where we ensure our species survives."

"Survives for what?" Toothless exclaimed, "Why is it so important we survive when all we're doing is slowly decaying? What exactly is there to live for down here?"

"You would not understand."

"Enlighten me, then."

"As I said, the outside world is a danger to the Alepha and to the Notoraquin. This way we ensure both endure."

"And why should both endure?" Toothless demanded, "What have either done that makes them deserve to live for ages? How many dragons have died because the Alpha flipped and flopped around on their belly and never did a thing to help anyone? Humans have died too! Hiccup and I nearly lost our lives countless times to get a few islands to see dragons as something better than mindless and murdering demons! We improved the lives of hundreds of people and dragons! What's on your list of accomplishments?"

Radamar was fascinated and wanted him to say more, but Menomem snorted.

"The outside world never cared for any of us, so why should we care about them? If the umanu wanted to be friends so badly, why'd they keep trying to kill and capture us?"

"I'll grant you not all humans are perfect, and they have done awful things to dragons in the past, but this is changing! We're changing it, slowly but surely! We don't need to hide anymore!"

"We don't?" Radamar asked excitedly.

"Of course we do, Plorip!" her hoah snapped. "He's just making up lies to try and convince us that things can improve. But I guarantee this: if Salistus revealed himself as the Alepha, the umanu would at once try to capture him. Here there is peace and security—and that is more than the outside world will ever provide us." She turned to Radamar, "I do not want you spending time with him anymore. I will take him back to his den."

"I can find it myself." Toothless snarled. But Menomem followed him anyway.

"You are thinking foolishly and selfishly," she told him as they walked. Toothless was trying to keep as far ahead of her as he could.

"Am I?"

"You were talking with Sclepus, yes? You heard about his Vav, I assume? Then let their example be a warning to you. They thought the outside world was better and it killed them after they deserted us."

"How do you know they're dead?" Toothless retorted, harsher than he intended, "Maybe they found a better place to live and saw no reason to ever come back!"

Menomem's eyes sparkled with maliciousness. "You're too influenced by that umanu. You think you're best friends, I suppose? I'm sure that thing really thinks of you as a pet, or a mount."

"You're grasping at straws." Toothless said smugly, "Do you expect me to believe you know him better than I do? I've known him for 10 years. I'm the only one he's ever wholly confided in. Hiccup is my best friend and I am his. And one other thing—I AM NOBODY'S PET!" he roared so loudly he made Menomem jump.

She had to wait a little for the echoes to die down so she could speak without being drowned out. "Then consider this. You are at what—a quarter life, a fifth? That means you've still got a long life ahead of you—assuming your adventurous insubordination does not end you prematurely. How long does that umanu have to live? What are you going to do when it's dead?"

"What are you—?"

"I know enough about the umanu to know they do not have a lifespan like the Notoraquin. I imagine when you're only at half life, that thing you cherish so much will be dead. Think of how that will feel if you continue to cherish it. It would be wiser to break all ties with it at once and save yourself the pain of a loss that cannot be avoided."

"Or be with him as much as I possibly can while we still have time left." Toothless retorted.

"And what happens after it dies?" she asked triumphantly.

Toothless smiled. He knew it would irritate her. "If I need advice when that day comes, I'll talk to an actual friend. I certainly won't be coming to you for comfort. I'd rather have pneumonia!"

For the first time her confidence faltered. "What is that?"

"A disease. What? You didn't know that? Well, perhaps there are things the outside world can teach, if you're willing to learn and listen." With that he turned away and went to his den, kicking away every loose rock in his path. He thought about what Menomem had told him and snorted. "Does she think I'll come back here when Hiccup dies? Hah! Assuming that we ever get away from here, of course," he shuddered. "But knowing Hiccup he's already got a bunch of plans in mind. And knowing him, we're probably going to die together. Most likely his latest flight suit won't work when he's testing it, I'll try to save him, and we'll both fall to our deaths. Maybe something similar happened to my parents!" he laughed and then screamed in agony.

"What is it?"

Toothless jumped. Radamar was standing behind him, looking very nervous.

"What do you want now?" he asked impatiently.

"You should know I'm disobeying my hoah right now. And if she finds out about this, she'll order Salistus to order me to never go anywhere near you again."

"Does that really matter to you?" Toothless asked blandly. To his surprise she nodded. "Why?"

"Because after all I've heard from you and Hiccup, I want to know more!" she cried, "You mentioned places you had helped. How did you help them? How do they live now? And what's it like to feel sunlight on your wings? For that matter, what exactly is sunlight?"

Toothless eyed her incredulously. "Seriously?"

"No, I don't know! That's why I'm asking!"

She looked at him so imploringly that Toothless mellowed. "Sit down. So what do you want to know? Where should I start?"

"What is sunlight and what does it feel like?" she asked eagerly.

"Well, you know what the sun is, right? It's the bright thing in the sky that lights and warms the world and separates day and night."

"Oh! The yellow stone! Yes, I know what that is. But I very rarely have seen it. What does it feel like?"

"It's a nice warm and comforting sensation. It makes you feel happy and relaxed, like everything's going to be all right in the end." He saw no need to go on, so he watched as she tried to picture what he said. "So…what else do you want to know?"

"How did you and Hiccup first meet?"

"That's not really a memory I like to talk about," Toothless said quickly. "It wasn't a pleasant day for either of us."

"Oh…well, then, when did you two have a pleasant day?"

Toothless thought a moment. "Well, there was this time a few days later when he showed up carrying a fish…"

As he went on he found it rather nice to be talking to a female Night Fury. She interrupted almost every other sentence with questions, most of them concerning what no outside dweller would even think about, like what trees and belts were.

"…and as I reached for the fish he said 'huh, toothless. I could've sworn you had teeth!' And that's where I got my name from."

"I can be toothless too!" Radamar said, retracting her own teeth. "So what happened next?"

"I found out the relations between humans and raw fish and I learned how to smile. And this pesky little kid kept trying to sneak up on me and touch me." He smiled at the memory and then elaborated for her.

Suddenly she stood up. "I think I better get going. If my hoah notices I'm gone, she might start to—"

Toothless nodded at once. "Yeah,"

She turned away but then turned back to him. "I'll see you later? Perhaps you can finish your story then?"

Toothless nodded sadly. "I doubt I'm going anywhere anytime soon."

"I'll talk to Salistus if I can, see if he'll let you—well, I'll see you later,"

Once she was gone Toothless looked back at the cave wall. "We didn't even get to the best part, where I wowed him with my artistic abilities—and when we bonded." He sighed, "I wonder what my sire would have said about this. Would he have reacted like Hiccup's? Or would he have approved?" he looked upwards, as if someone above would give him an answer. "'What's sunlight?' she said. Am I ever going to see the sunlight again?" Dragons cannot cry, but if they could, tears would have been in his eyes. He was thinking about the period of his existence when he had been a slave to the Red Death.

Hiccup had a hard childhood, but in some respects his had been worse. Once he learned to fly he had believed himself practically invincible, and one night he came upon a flock of dragons carrying their kills to their nest. They had told him about their tyrannical Beta, and he had naively thought he could take her down and claim the nest for his own. The overthrow had died before it began. Within a few heartbeats he was just another slave to the Red Death's will.

Toothless sometimes really hated how Betas and Alphas had complete control over their nests. That was one reason why he did not use his own powers too often. He knew how dangerous that kind of power was and he had seen what it did to those who had it, and what it did to those around them. Salistus the Alpha was hardly aware of what he was truly capable of. He did not realize he could order everyone to kill themselves and they would have to do it. And it would not technically violate the First Law, thanks to loopholes in the Law's wording.

Unlike Salistus, the Red Death had been fully aware of what she was capable of. Every few nights everyone would go find her food and anyone who had not brought enough back died. Those she ate had the fastest and most painless deaths. They had lived in terror so much that flying out to find food for her was almost a relief, until they remembered what might happen to them later.

He had never taken food from any villages—not because he cared about them, but he had known it was safer to find food in the wild, and he was a good enough hunter that he could afford the gamble. He would still blast village defenses from a distance, to make it a little easier for others. But this small assistance had been for selfish reasons: the fewer dragons there were in the nest, the more food they would have to bring in, and the more likely their efforts would displease the Red Death. Certainly he had not rendered any assistance because of any affection for the other dragons. Affection? Friendship? Honor? Integrity? Those meant nothing in that horrible nest. Nobody wanted to have anything to do with anyone else in case the Red Death thought they were plotting against her. After years of living that way, everyone thought of nothing but their own survival. Other dragons were just vague faces not worth the effort to think about.

And then he had met Hiccup. That day, in that boy's eyes, he realized that both of them were living awful lives and were searching hopelessly for a way out. And they had worked together and found that way out, and into the happiest years he had ever known. And when he had become a Beta he had sworn he would not abuse his power like the Red Death had. The dragons who had come from that nest thanked him profusely for that promise. It had felt like waking up from a nightmare when the Red Death had died.

And now he was back in a nest that was already treating him like a slave. Oh yes they were. He had been ordered to stay there for the rest of his life, without anyone giving any consideration to what he might actually want. Not only was he furious about it, but it also worried him. He could not help but fear sooner or later this nest was going to end up just like the nest at Helheim gate had been. Had he escaped one nightmare to only gain a breathing space before another?

Then he sneezed and shook his head violently. "There I go, wallowing in self pity like Hiccup used to. I'm a Night Fury! I'm getting out of here, one way or another, just like my parents did, and I'm bringing my human with me! I'm Toothless the Night Fury, not Emaracluse the Notoraquin, and sooner or later, somehow, I'm going to fly with the sunlight on my wings again and with Hiccup controlling my tail! And that's a promise!"