Ch. 11
Toothless awoke in a pool of moonlight that encircled him on the cave floor. He was confused. He'd awakened for no apparent reason from a lovely dream about finding Hiccup and returning to Berk. Looking across the cave he noticed that Eletra was still asleep, this realization confused him even further. "If she's asleep why did I wake up?" His mind was now fully awake trying to figure out this out. Toothless wandered onto the cave ledge to think. A light breeze picked up and rolled across his scales before disappearing. "Hiccup, where are you? I should've found you by now." These and other likeminded thoughts passed thru his head while he sat looking over the island. He continued to think about his time on the island and what could've happened to Hiccup for over an hour before going back inside the cave. When he woke for a second time not long after, he began to wonder if something—or someone was waking him up. It was still dark outside, and to his relief, nothing was waiting on the cave ledge trying to get inside.
"Eletra?" he whispered across the cave—no response. Concerned, Toothless moved to ensure she was alright. "She looks to be alright," he said quietly, she stirred and looked at him. "Hello? Could you move away a bit." She paused for a second before continuing, "why are you awake? What were you doing?!" Toothless was about to admit he'd been examining her, but he stopped, "that might not come across correctly" he thought. "I thought I saw movement and wanted to make sure you were alright." Eletra not having any of it looked Toothless in the eyes. Not a minute later she broke contact to allow her eyes to refocus before she looked back at him. "What is with your eyes? It..I..how..it was not a good feeling. Don't do that again, whatever you did." she said genuinely unsettled. With nothing else to say she sank back down to sleep, within minutes Toothless noticed she'd asleep. Having been woken twice on the opposite end of the cave, Toothless decided to sleep beside Eletra.
When Toothless awoke for a third time, daylight filled the cave casting shadows over both Night Furies. Toothless lurched back in surprise falling onto Eletra upon seeing the cave floor. She was not happy at being woken up in such an aggressive manner. "I trust you have a good reason for falling on me," she said quite irritated and a twinge bruised. "Look!" Toothless picked himself up so Eletra could look. Toothless had awoken to find the cave floor covered in oozy fire slime, including where he was previously sleeping before waking Eletra. He looked back at Eletra; she was seething. Toothless knew better than to be on the wrong side of a Night Fury's temper, and he quickly moved out of her way. "Don't let me stop you." Eletra smiled at him, in a flash she'd cleared a path thru the slime and was outside. Toothless casually walked to the cave entrance, in time to hear a blood culturing scream, a sickening crunch and the clatter of rocks as they rolled off the mountainside. "That sounded painful" Toothless thought with a snicker. He felt little remorse for a dragon who would attack another dragon in their sleep.
Walking onto the cave ledge, he saw nothing, "If you're looking for me, I'm up here." Toothless looked up and was greeted by a limp and very dead Monstrous that hadn't succumbed to gravity yet. "Did he put up a fight?" Toothless asked as Eletra landed on the cave ledge. The dead dragon was quickly losing traction and giving in to gravity. "He tried," Eletra noted as she watched a tree splinter and break that was in the path of the dead dragon. "Who was that?" Toothless asked as both tree and dragon tumbled down into the forest below. "I think its name was Ragetooth, but I can't be sure, I don't usually spy on Fright and his gang, too risky." "Who?" Toothless asked unaware of the history and bloodshed attached to the dragon. Eletra gave Toothless a dumbfounded look before remembering he'd been unconscious until two days ago.
"I forgot you don't know who he is. Fright is idiotic, murderous, and a very arrogant Monstrous Nightmare who arrived about two years ago. He brought his gang of likeminded Monstrous Nightmares and slaughtered any dragons he deemed a threat to him or his 'power.' Only a smattering of terrors are still alive here—that's if Fright hasn't located them again." Toothless was appalled and disgusted by what she described. "Why are you still here then? Furthermore, why are you alive if he and his gang have killed every dragon they deem a threat? You certainly pose a threat to them." Eletra smiled "I'll take that as a compliment." She continued, "Simply put, they haven't managed to kill me yet, that and they are idiots when it comes to combat." Toothless chuckled for a second. "If they are idiots at combat how is it every dragon on the island managed to die?" Eletra locked eyes with Toothless "Fright, and his gang ambushed them; at night, when they were eating, sleeping, whenever they weren't expecting it." Toothless was aghast. "Have they hurt you?" he found himself asking feeling a strange sense of protectiveness for her well-being. "I'm a female Night Fury, I leave battle scars to the males, like yourself. But If you must know, yes they've hurt me. but not physically, I—" she paused, "you don't want to know."
Changing the subject, she motioned to his prosthetic tailfin "That reminds me, I've wanted to ask this since I first encountered you. What is all this stuff attached to you? More importantly, why do you have a fake tailfin! " She asked zealously. "I was wondering how long you were going to wait before asking" Toothless replied staring at her. He'd been puzzling over how best to bring up the subject and was glad she'd finally asked instead. "I lost my tailfin five years ago, ever since I've only been able to fly with the help of a Viking." "I hope she still respects me." Toothless thought as he mentally prepared himself for the onslaught he was certain he'd receive. Nothing happened. Opening his eyes, Toothless saw Eletra staring off into the middle distance, a memory clicking in her head. "It all makes sense now, how did I miss that!?" Toothless couldn't make sense of this. His only consolation was not being humiliated by one of his own kind. "Eletra? Eletra!" She snapped out of it looking at Toothless quizzically. "What makes sense?" Toothless wanted to know why she acted so strange upon stating he was friends with a Viking.
Unobserved under the forest canopy, two Monstrous Nightmares had arrived to examine the remains of Ragetooth. "Did you know about this Fright?" Flamewings asked looking at Fright still staring at the corpse in front of them. "If I'd known the location of that Night Fury's cave, I'd have put an end to her torment long ago. No, he didn't inform me of this development." "Striking out on his own perhaps?" Flamewings suggested, he'd previously thought Ragetooth had the foresight not to Attack Night Furies. "Makes no difference now, she saw to that." He stated answering Flamewings question. "Our group grows smaller." Fright murmured as he looked up at the sky and the rocky cliff-face. "With Ashes and Ragetooth gone, who is left?" Flamewings inquired. "Why should it matter? Only the Night Furies challenge my presence here. Soon they will be dead like the rest." Fright stated, "Yeah, well if you'd killed her before this new Night Fury had shown up instead of letting her stew in her misery, we wouldn't be in this fix." Flamewings stated in a rare moment of backbone.
"IF I HAD..why you!" "Fright, now don't do anything you'll regret," Flamewings said anxiously as Fright turned on him. ."Fright, if..if you kill me then who will help you attack the Night Furies?!" This stopped Fright from killing him, Flamewings was quite relieved at this development. "Your lucky Ragetooth died, or it'd be you in a crumpled heap here." Flamewings was once again reminded how little Fright cared about his subordinates, especially once they'd died. "Flamewings, I'm going to pay that stubborn Night Fury a visit." "Fright" he stopped and looked at Flamewings displeased with his hesitation. "I let you live this once, I won't do it twice." "Why don't we try and lure them apart to make it easier." "That isn't my style, coward." Fright, she's already on edge from Ragetooth, and certainly, that other Night Fury is ready for a fight as well. The chances of us living are slim at best." "fanged coward." "What's the use of killing everyone who opposes you if you don't stay alive to relish it?" Fright stopped and after a few seconds of consideration; agreed. "We'll attack them later when they aren't expecting it."
**Credit to Ilovechips4ever for pointing out several plot holes that could only be answered with "plot armor." I have reworded sections to create a solid answer to them in this chapter. [potentially future chapters as well.]