Ch.12
Toothless stared at her, "what makes sense?" Eletra blinked, "its—its nothing," she said dismissing the question. "Was it about Hi—the Viking I mentioned?" She looked at him; "I'm not sure, let me collect my thoughts." Soon both dragons were looking in opposite directions, one thinking about Hiccup, the other about the reaction the Viking had upon seeing her. Toothless looked out over the expanse of island wondering if Hiccup was still there; he'd begun to suspect that Astrid or Valka had rescued him while he was unconscious. "I haven't heard Hiccup at all, not once, it is a fairly small island, I would've heard Hiccup shouting for me. I'll check once more; maybe I've just missed him." He thought before taking off as quiet as possible—which turned out to be not silent at all. Eletra was alerted to his departure by the shrill sound of his metal tailfin scrapping against the rock as he left.
By unlucky coincidence, this sound masked the sound of claws scrapping over the rocks above Eletra's cave. "He can fly, so why hasn't he left?" she was confused, "He acts stranded here, but he clearly is not. Why does he persist in staying?" It was then she realized what he'd said earlier, "he needs a Viking to help him fly properly." She repeated to herself. She thought back to what the Viking had said to her. For the first time since she discovered Toothless, Eletra was conflicted. She knew that informing Toothless his Viking had been rescued by a Deadly Naddar and a Gronkle was the right thing, but she didn't want him to leave. "If I don't tell him, he might be resentful later on." The thought pained her, and she didn't want him to leave, her life would feel empty and dull without him now.
Above Eletra's cave, three Monstrous Nightmares crept closer being as quiet as three Monstrous Nightmares could be. "Fright, you sure this will work?" Inferno asked, his confidence level quite low, Not once had Fright or any other dragon successfully attacked this Night Fury and it worried Inferno a great deal. "Quiet you fool; you'll give us away!" Fright hissed not bothering to tell Inferno he would likely be the first to die. "Something isn't right. She should've heard us by now" Flamewings observed noticing how calm she was. "Fright" "quiet" "Fright!" Inferno hissed again, the panic evident in his voice."What is—" Fright turned to glare at Inferno, only to see the other Night Fury flying beneath them searching for something "He hasn't seen us, don't so much as breath wrong—I won't have the trouble of killing you if we are found out." Fright hissed as Toothless glided below them scanning the ground. Fright's warning unnerved Inferno, who was already on edge. Inferno briefly lost his hold and knocked a few pebbles loose while regaining his grip on the mountain. A reasonably quiet sound, but the rocks kept bouncing making more and more noise
The look of horror in Fright's eyes was evident. Fright froze watching his plan fall apart, as the rock supporting Inferno exploded, everything slowed to a crawl, Fright caught a glimpse of the terror in Inferno's eyes as he fell. "YOU FOOL! YOU'VE DOOMED US ALL!" Fright screamed sending a blast of fire at the Inferno, who remained motionless, paralyzed with fear. Eletra, if not already alerted to their presence by part of the mountain exploding, Frights screams confirmed it. Looking up Eletra was shocked to find Fright so close above her. Flamewings locked Eyes with Eletra after turning to see Inferno vanish from the mountain. In that brief moment, Eletra felt as if Flamewings wanted no part in attacking her. A scream from Inferno brought Eletra back to the fight and she landed a plasma blast on Flamewings muzzle, temporarily blinding him. Toothless had, by now, circled around and was preparing to land and ensure Eletra was alright.
But then the unthinkable happened, Fright let loose with a deluge of fire slime at Eletra. Toothless, without hesitation, dove between Eletra and the cascade of fire, preventing her from being harmed. It was a fiery sensation as the burning slime rolled off his scales. The feeling was quickly replaced with a searing pain from his saddle and gear against his scales. He strained as the downforce increased as Flamewings angered by the plasma blast added to the mass of sticky fire gel. It decreased in intensity as Fright exhausted his supply of fire shortly after. Toothless thought that Eletra, who was pinned beneath him, had said something but he couldn't hear them. Toothless was becoming increasingly fed up with the show of power from the Monstrous Nightmares. At that moment Inferno rejoined the fight and added a second stream of fire to the cascade. "ENOUGH!" It was a scale splitting, mind-numbing scream that stopped the three dragons cold.
It was immediately apparent to the Monstrous Nightmares that they'd picked a fight with the wrong dragon. As the slime rolled off his scales, Toothless was glowing an iridescent blue with the remains of his saddle and gear smoldering on his back. Eletra, all the while, struggled to free herself from her pinned state. The three dragons were mortified, a glowing Night Fury was not an ordinary sight. Toothless removed himself from Eletra and took a more offensive stance at the attackers. Inferno was dispatched in one supercharged plasma blast, as his charred body fell from the mountain Flamewings and Fright began to retreat. For Flamewings it was already too late, with two quick supercharged plasma blasts, he and his severed right wing fell from the mountain as well. Fright was scared clean out of his scales and was flying away when Toothless fired a blast and punctured Fright's right-wing knocking him out of the sky, sending him plummeting towards the forest.
Eletra stood there aghast, staring at Toothless her mind blank. It was several seconds before the iridescence faded and Eletra could see patches of Toothless's scales looked a dull, unfinished darkish grey. "What are you!?" She finally spat out, Petrified by what she'd witnessed. " I am a Night Fury, just like you," Toothless exclaimed indigently. "I just happen to be the Alpha." He stated. Eletra was stunned, "Alpha? The dragons that control every other dragon if they so choose? But—How?" "I'm sure one of the other dragons will tell you," Toothless said, momentarily forgetting he wasn't on Berk. "other dragons? We're the only dragons here." "On Berk, Where I live" This didn't answer her question at all, and she desperately wanted an answer. "I should put my tailfin out." He said as if it was completely normal to extinguish one's tail.
The pair took off for a pond so Toothless could clean himself off and begin to recoat his scales. The extent of the damage became apparent when he took flight and nearly fell into the forest. He managed to position himself into a somewhat steady glide until they reached a pond, As Toothless extinguished the what remained of his saddle and tailfin, Eletra thought about the what Toothless's action meant. "I wonder if he'll ask me to be his mate?" was the question on her mind when Toothless came over to her, water dripping off his scales, which already had begun to recover, it would take several hours for the coating to set in properly. "Toothless?" "Yes, Eletra?" "Why did you put yourself in harm's way for me?" This triggered a flashback for Toothless to the very brief moments when Hiccup had both a mother and a father again. That memory faded into one he wished hadn't happened, the memory had the sharpness of a half-forgotten drunken dream. Stoick taking the impact of his plasma blast in place of Hiccup. "Toothless?" Toothless looked at Eletra who was staring at him expectantly. "I was protecting the one I love." In Toothless's mind, he tacked on, "and paying down a debt I owe."