Ch.3

Toothless awoke the next morning to soft moonlight filtering into the cave, lifting his head slowly he peered out of the cave ensuring he hadn't changed location in his sleep. He breathed a sigh of relief seeing he'd not moved. Across the cave, the female Night Fury he'd discovered the previous night had yet to wake up; not wanting to wake her and be barraged with questions. Toothless exited the cave stopping on the ledge just outside to gaze out at the predawn sky. "Who is she? Why is she helping me? Has anybody missed me? If I'm dead, she must be dead too; right?" Toothless thought before another, more troubling thought hit him. "What if she's only a figment of my imagination? What If—no, that doesn't make any sense, if she isn't real then how did I arrive at this cave, have my left wing attended to and that pile of fish." Toothless thought. He contemplated this problem for a few seconds before opening his wings.

He did so in a slow manner to minimize any residual pain before turning to examine each wing. His neck muscles were stiff and ached from the lack of use, lifting his tail, he inspected his tailfin, it was in sad shape, the leather was torn, and the outer edge of the metal was bent upwards at a 30-degree angle. One of the few good things Toothless observed was its position—fixed open. "It looks stable enough, for now." Without wasting any more time, he leaped off the ledge in an attempt to fly. It was extremely risky. If he were wrong and couldn't fly, he'd crash into the trees that were nearing all too quickly. Luckily an updraft caught Toothless giving him the lift he sought. As he rounded the side of the mountain a short while later and was on a return vector for the cave, he took notice of the dawn breaking announcing the start of a new day.

It was over within minutes all the while turning the sky a brilliant amber hue that turned pastel orange in the clouds. The amber quickly gave way to sheets of pale yellow, recoloring the clouds pink; Toothless had become so intent on watching the sunrise, he was startled when his balance left him. He'd been so focused on the Sunrise he'd forgotten to correct for the tailfin. The situation roused him and a good deal of corrective flapping later he landed in a cove where a stream fed pond nestled. It was there Toothless saw the dirtied and beaten down dragon staring back at him from the surface of the water. Toothless was shocked upon realizing the dragon in the water was him. seeing himself covered with patches of dried, grimy, sand laced blood unsettled him; "how bad were my injuries if I look like this?" Wasting no time, he walked into the pond to try and clean himself off as best he could. "This would be easier if the pond was higher than my stomach." Toothless murmured as he attempted to wash his muzzle with limited success.

After a few minutes without any visible sign that the blood was coming off, he resigned himself to rest beside the pond thinking of the best way to effectively remove the blood. "Is this just how I'm going to look from now on? Can I not clean the blood if I'm dead?" The idea that he was in fact, dead, was losing traction in his mind. Toothless stared at the tiny ripples that formed on the pond from the bugs flying across it as he thought of things that didn't fit in with the theory about being dead. He stared at his tailfin confused, staring at one primary reason if he was killed, why did he still have Hiccup's flight solution attached? Why not two natural tailfins?

"I see you can still fly at least. That's a relief" the female Night Fury stated hovering just above the cove. "Did I wake you?" Toothless asked looking at her; she landed beside him before answering. "No, however, I must admit, I was surprised to see you gone when I woke up." "I wanted to explore, and you looked so peaceful sleeping I didn't want to disturb you." She smiled before noticing the caked-on blood and grime the water had failed to remove from Toothless. "You look concerned, is something wrong?" he asked her. "Your injuries are more extensive than I thought, could you lie down please." he stared at her bewildered, "Lie down? What for?" she huffed impatiently before speaking again. "the longer this gunk stays collected on your wounds, the higher your risk of infection, and then you will have a serious problem. Night Furies do not handle infections well." Toothless was astonished, "how does she know so much about Night Fury healing practices? She isn't old enough to be the healer of a Thunder1, how?"

Toothless apprehensively lay down allowing this new Night Fury to cleanse his wounds. "How do you know so much about Night Fury healing practices, that isn't something a lot of Night Furies know." Toothless asked wincing as she sustained a low heat stream of fire to cleanse his wounds. She stopped for a breath part way thru and answered his question. "My mother was the healer of the Thunder1 I belonged to. She taught me hoping I would take the role over someday." "Was?" Toothless said before he realized he'd spoken aloud. There was silence, after what seemed like forever, she spoke, "It's…difficult to talk about." When Toothless was free of the crud2 covering his injuries, a new pain started. It was a mixture of soft warmth and tiny pockets of sharp acute pain. He turned back to the other Night Fury once he'd looked over her handy work, to find she avoided his gaze. "strange" he thought briefly before asking one last question. "Why did you wait so long?" she looked at him confused. "Why did I wait so long? I don't understand" "I meant, why did you wait until now to cleanse my wounds?" Toothless clarified. "I wanted you to be awake….also, you intrigue me, so it slipped my mind." While Toothless thought about the implications of her answer, she posted a different, more immediate question. "There's a spot not far with plenty of food, and you've got to be famished after not eating for so long." She had so many questions she wanted to ask Toothless she had trouble keeping them from jumping out; she concluded that he'd be more receptive to her questions after eating, so without waiting she flew out of the cove. Toothless stared at her somewhat befuddled.

She stared back hovering, expecting him to fly up and meet her; she was surprised when he did not. After another few seconds of waiting, she landed once more to find out why he'd not joined her in the air. "I can't fly" was His only response, Toothless felt something strange as he said this; "shame? Why would I be ashamed? I've never felt at a disadvantage." She did not understand how he could not fly, given his current location, but was unsure how to ask such a question. "um..I know another way to get there, it might take a little longer is all, follow me." She made her way up a path that lead to the cove's rim, and she urged Toothless to follow. "This path is awfully convenient, did you create this for easy access?" Toothless asked while climbing, "I did; in a way, there was an…incident, I simply…made use of it." Once Toothless was out of the cove, they began to walk thru the forest. "My names Eletra by the way, what's yours?" she asked making conversation. "Toothless." Eletra stopped and turned to look at him, "Toothless? Isn't that a rather unusual name for Night Fury?" She did not stop long though, as she resumed walking quickly. "I've grown accustomed to it. It's a homage to my retractable teeth." "Odd thing to name your hatchling after I'll say." Toothless did not feel confiding in her that a Viking was responsible for his name was a wise idea.

"I don't usually walk on this island; one tree looks like another." She did not want to divulge the real reason she almost never walked anywhere—not yet at least. Several quiet minutes later Eletra stopped and turned to face Toothless, "I'm going to fly up and check how close where we're going is, we should've been there by now." Toothless watched her fly away before turning his gaze back to the forest. A sudden explosion nearby startled him sending a jolt down his spine. "Sorry, about that, I needed to…take care of something that was in the way". Eletra said appearing in front of him, Toothless couldn't get over her eyes, a deep green expanse laced with pale yellow, a light dusting of forest green clung to the edges. "Toothless?" Toothless snapped out of the trace he'd slipped into and proceeded to follow her once more.

When the two Night Furies had eaten their fill, Eletra thought which question would be best to ask first, "Should I ask like it's only a passing interest, or let on that I've puzzled over it for several days now." Toothless who was preoccupied with examining his wings again failed to see the indecisiveness on Eletra's face. It was only when Toothless remembered she'd especially wanted to ask him questions that he took notice of her again. "Eletra?" She came out of her thoughts to look at Toothless. "Yes?" but inside her calm had all but given up. "Ugh, I didn't speak up fast enough, now he's going to ask me questions before I'll—I love how he says my name." Her thoughts derailed once she registered he'd used her name to address her. "You wanted to ask me questions, did you decide to wait?" "…what?" was all she could manage to think in response to this unexpected courtesy. "Yes, yes, I did-do have some questions for you." The two dragons made themselves comfortable, both guessing they would be talking for quite awhile.

"I can only assume that what is in place of your left tailfin helps you fly, but what is all this other stuff attached to you? How does it not bother you? That would drive me mad within minutes." Toothless chuckled lightly before answering, "That's just it, right now it does bother me, I'm not accustomed to it being on for such an extended period." "Why don't you just remove it then?" "If I remove it, I will be placing myself in grave danger. As for what it is, well you're right, I do need it so I can fly." Eletra could tell he was not telling her something, but she didn't want to risk the rest of her questions by prodding him for the rest of the answer to one question. "How did I get into your cave? You don't look like you would've carried a limp Night Fury to your cave." Eletra gave him an indigent look, "maybe I should've asked" she thought briefly before dismissing the thought. He sounded sincere in his asking, and it was a reasonable question she decided after thinking about it for a few seconds. She still whacked his muzzle with her tail.

"I guess that's a fair question; I'd want to know that if I woke up in a strange cave—among other things." She added quickly. "I managed to convince one of the Monstrous Nightmares inhabiting this island to bring you to the entrance of my cave; I dragged you inside from there. It's not often a dragon, particularly a Night Fury washes up on the beach looking like a Skrill took a disliking to him." "Why though?" Toothless asked curiously as to why she went to so much trouble for him. "because I'm a nice dragon." She said trying to skirt the question. "You could've just pulled me out of the water and left me, why did you take such care in ensuring I recovered?" Eletra gave in, "I wanted you out of the weather, my cave seemed like a good place to monitor your condition. Also, there was just something…something…you just seemed different, like more important somehow." She had started to smile without realizing it. Toothless did not fail to miss this. "Satisfied?" she said a few seconds later. Toothless nodded silently and didn't ask anything else; he had a lot of new information to process. He was indebted to her "I need to find a way to show my appreciation." He moved his tail closer to hers and for a brief moment their tailfins intertwined. "There is no way I can be dead. I refuse to accept that reality." Toothless thought as a gleeful joy began to bubble up inside him.

1Thunder— a group of wild dragons.

2Crud—a deposit or incrustation of filth, grease, or refuse

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