Ch.13
This statement didn't register fully in Eletra's mind for several minutes. Shocked by his actions, part of her attempted to find some ulterior motive to what'd happened. She sat on the shore watching Toothless as he tried to check the state of his gear. "Could he just be repaying me for saving his life? Does he plan on acting on his statement?" Eletra couldn't make sense of his action or his unwillingness to talk about it. "Toothless?" He looked up from what remained of his gear at her. "Yes?" "Why did you do it? I want to know." Toothless's expression tensed before answering.
"I already told you I did it because I love you." "Why did you tense up when I asked if it was out of love? Is there some darker, more sinister reason?" "NO—" he blurted out before he could stop himself. "nothing like that, I couldn't let it happen to you." A noise caught the attention of both Night Furies ending the conversation. "something's not right, I heard something. I'll go investigate, stay here." Eletra said darting off into the forest before Toothless could say anything in reply. "Why is she so critical of my affection? What scars keep making her question herself and me for that matter?" Toothless was puzzled and worried. "Was there really a noise?" He thought before washing his scales once more, the coating having only recently cured.
Toothless washed his scales, and what remained of his gear, but was confused. "Perhaps I was too abrupt?" A few minutes later, Eletra hadn't returned, so he left and walked to the small cove where he'd enjoyed breakfast a few days ago. He hadn't expected to find Eletra there, so it didn't come as a surprise when she wasn't there. "She's off investigating a strange noise," he told himself. Finding a spot on the grass in the sun, he closed his eyes to rest, his muscles beginning to ache. Toothless hadn't rested long when he heard a dragon not too far off. He'd been ignoring the sound as it grew louder thinking it to be an illusion, but soon he gave in and looked up. A single Deadly Nadder was approaching. Toothless was unsure whether to alert the dragon, presumably Stormfly, to his location or not. "Stormfly? Is that you?" He called out deciding to take a chance and alert the dragon. "TOOTHLESS?!" Stormfly screeched a little too excited. "Where?" How? But I…" The Deadly Nadder was quite flustered and excited to have found her friend.
"What is it, girl? Did you find something?" Astrid asked noticing her dragon had tensed significantly. "Astrid, It's Toothless!" Hiccup exclaimed looking at Toothless who noticed Hiccup at the same moment. "I knew he couldn't be dead." Toothless felt days of stress and worry fall away from him like water. He stood a little taller, stronger and with more confidence. Stormfly landed opposite him in the cove and gasped upon seeing the bedraggled Night Fury. "What happened to you! You're a mess!" she stated shocked. "It's a long story, a long story." The aches and pain accumulated over the past nine days began to scream for attention, his mind no longer preoccupied with worry for Hiccup.
Hiccup ran over to his dragon ecstatic to be reunited and squashed any doubts about Toothless being dead."Toothless! Bud! Ah, I'm so glad you're alive. I was worried sick about you." Hiccup said hugging Toothless's muzzle. Astrid walked over to examine Toothless to find he was a mess. "Toothless, what happened to you? You look awful." Hiccup heard this and stepped back to look at his dragon properly. "That could be a problem; the gears have melted together. Toothless how did this happen?" Hiccup was dumbfounded how the flight controls had sustained so much damage, with Toothless only looking a bit dusty.
Meanwhile, also on the island, an enraged Monstrous Nightmare had cornered the second Night Fury. Eletra for all her grace and agility wasn't adept at repelling a dragon who'd ambushed her. She'd chosen long ago to focus on knowledge and wisdom rather than honing her ability to hold her own in an unfair dragon fight. She often found this to be to her benefit. However, this was not one of those times. While thinking about what Toothless had said, she'd left herself vulnerable to attack. Fright, who happened to be limping by, noticed and was quick to take advantage of this lapse in her awareness. "You think you've won, don't you?" Fright spat after she'd successfully distanced him with a plasma blast. "You and that…insult killed what remained of my empire, but there will always be dragons that follow my path." Fright said overconfidently. He was hoping that somehow this would dishearten the Night Fury allowing him to attack her in a weakened mental state. His words meant nothing to her, except one little word. "That insult is my friend you murderous tyrant." Eletra made a move to lunge at his neck, Fright dodged, but Eletra had counted on this, and she put a plasma blast into the base of his left wing, dislocating it. Fright screeched and fled. "YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST OF ME NIGHT FURY!" as he disappeared into the forest.
Once Fright vanished, Eletra's adrenaline rush died, and she discovered she'd sustained several scratches from Fright. "The nerve of that...of that...Nightmare." Her thoughts soon shifted to Toothless, and how he was faring. "I should go back and make sure Fright didn't pay him a visit as well." she thought he'd shouted something earlier but couldn't remember what. She rushed back to the pond they'd been at but found it deserted. There was no evidence of a battle and no disturbance to indicate where he went. "Where did he go?!" she questioned. Then she heard it, and she paused, "voices?" she listened again and indeed found that voices were not too far away. Following the sounds, she arrived at the cove Toothless had discovered when he'd awoke. She spotted Toothless and was about to jump down to meet him when she noticed that he was not alone. A Deadly Naddar and two Vikings were fussing over a pile of wood that was on fire. She ducked back out of sight of the Vikings, wondering if Toothless would notice her. She did not have to wait long, as Hiccup, Astrid and Stormfly fussed over the fire, Toothless lay down to rest but felt uneasy as if somebody was watching him, he looked around and soon spotted her.
His look confused her. It looked torn, very happy yet equally sad all at once. "Get back, they'll see you!" With that, Eletra left, puzzled as to his odd behavior. With little else to do, Eletra retreated to her cave, dozing off with thoughts of her mother and what she might think of Toothless. Several hours later she awoke to a moon-drenched sky and was ecstatic that the Monstrous Nightmare hadn't the smarts to kill her while she slept. For the first time in days Eletra took to the night sky, after a slow flight and a quick circle around the mountain, she returned to her cave. Her heart sank when she realized that Toothless was not there waiting for her. "How could I've missed that when I woke up?" As she lay back down, she realized how empty her cave was without Toothless. For the first time in a long time, she felt out of place in the cave. "Be safe Toothless. I love you." She exclaimed, before closing her eyes again.
Toothless looked up at the sky that night after Hiccup had gone to sleep wishing he'd told Eletra more about his past. What he wanted most, was to escape from Hiccup to ask Eletra to be his mate and live with him on Berk. This, however, was impossible. Hiccup was sleeping underneath one of his wings as a protection from the cold. "Toothless, anything the matter? You seem troubled." Stormfly spoke up rousing Toothless from his thoughts. Toothless looked up to see Stormfly staring at him. "Everything's…it's nothing, don't worry about it." Toothless did not want to talk about Eletra to Stormfly and quickly closed the conversation turning his head away and closing his eyes. Stormfly was confused by his dismissive and troubled answer but decided it would be better to question him on the way back to Berk the next morning. "Better to not wake up Hiccup, he might panic." She thought before closing her eyes as well.