A/N: For the record, this was a really hard chapter to write and took me FOREVER to put to words, but I'm pretty sure it's also the longest one so far. Dragon perspective's ain't easy to pull off, man! XD But the muses demanded I write this chapter and I do think the story needed it ^_^ Hopefully you guys will agree~

Learning from the Masters
A How To Train Your Dragon Fanfiction
Based of Le'Letha's "Nightfall"

Toothless moaned a long, low sound and rolled over with pinched-closed eyes, trying in vain to be rid of the ache. Four days without even the smallest scrap of food was beginning to become intolerable and the dragon couldn't remember ever feeling so weak because of it. Even a tiny, meatless mouse would have been better than nothing at this point.

The worst part wasn't the hunger itself or the weak feeling though, it was the plaintive, worried fear he could start to hear ebbing into Hiccup's calls to him that was the worst despite Toothless' efforts to assure his other half that he was fine yes not hurt tired fine no worry safe only tired hungry fine but Hiccup knew he was lying and Toothless knew he was lying and his belly knew he was lying even more and punished his lying with pinching and angry demanding growling that only filling it could make stop and Toothless would if he could but he couldn't with the cage trapping him and the jaw-shut thing and the binding thing that kept him tethered inside and because the pfikingr did not bring him fish to eat like they did some of the other dragons.

One of the only reliefs he managed to get from the hungry-pinching-growling was when he managed to doze off but even then the hunger pains were starting to interrupt even that and making every moment beyond uncomfortable. The water that the pfikingr brought him daily helped a little bit for a short while but it didn't last long enough to make a difference.

The smell of fish and the sound of other cages being opened reached his nose and ears and it was enough to make his tongue water in overwhelming need for something to fill his belly but the Fury wasn't fool enough to hope he was going to get anything at this point, rolling back onto his belly and nestling his head between his paws and trying to find sleep if only to forget about being hungry for a while or to chase fish and prey-things in his dream and pretend he could get rid of the hungry-pinching-growling that way.

He was already there before long, hungrily hunting and chasing prey-things behind his eyelids and about to catch them when something flopped against his face outside his dreaming and the dragon sat bolt upright, forests and seas disappearing back into dark caves and weaving metal branches where the not-really-dragon-talking pfikingr watched him from beyond.

Toothless' surprise-wide eyes wandered down to where a dead fish lay at his paws and his nose flared, blinking for a moment as though thinking he might still be dreaming. The hunger overwhelmed his senses though and he tried to grab it, only to remember the jaw-shut thing and shaking his head furiously, snorting angrily and narrowing his eyes at the pfikingr as they slowly circled around the side of the cage, pushing the soft covering thing aside somewhat.

Toothless saw the pfikingr wave another fish in hand at him in a taunting sort of way and Toothless narrowed his eyes more, refusing to move closer, but the pfikingr didn't seem to catch the hint. They made a motion around their face and for a moment Toothless could only tilt his head in question, trying to figure out what the pfikingr was doing and irately pawed at the jaw-trap thing seconds before it dawned on him, angling his eyes to try and look at the device without success.

Sniffing uncertainly, the dragon cautiously crawled closer, eyeing the pfikingr with every bit of distrust he could muster, until he was within reach. He watched the human's every move as they dropped the second fish and used their skilled human paws to undo the jaw-shut trap and pull it fully away, rather than only loosen it, and Toothless couldn't be more happy or confused as he immediately backed away and shook his head a few times in relief to have it gone.

He immediately scarfed down the fish further away from the cage walls and eyed the pfikingr appraisingly out of the corner of his eyes. The food dropping into his stomach was like a hard, painful rock at first but quickly gave way to a good food-filled feeling that almost made the dragon moan in content pleasure after having felt so empty for so long and immediately fixed his gaze on the second fish, creeping forward to snatch it up before retreating again and scarfing that one down as well, licking his lips in satisfaction.

The pfikingr He made a sound at him and drew the Fury's attention to another fish held by his paws but Toothless was in no way eager to get anywhere near him again, waiting for them to toss it to him from a distance like before, but they did no such thing, indicating for him to come near once more. Toothless snorted refusal and stayed where he was at a safe distance, waiting for the pfikingr to lose patience and leave hopefully with dropping the fish where they were when he did but neither were willing to budge.

After a decent stretch of time, with neither Toothless having any intention of moving closer and the pfikingr showing not even the slightest inclination to leave anytime soon, the dragon stretched out pressed against the bars on the opposite side and made himself comfortable, still watching the pfikingr carefully and ready to wait up all night until they gave up if he had to. Two fish had hardly been enough to fill him up at all but now that he had eaten something he could wait and bide his time as long as he needed.

After considerably longer had passed, the pfikingr stood and Toothless watched him closely as he went to the front of the cage, then circled around to the same side, both with eyes locked on each other, but Toothless didn't move immediately, waiting to see what he was going to do. When the pfikingr stretched a hand out to touch him, Toothless noticeably growled and pushed himself up, moving to the other side of the cage and laying down the same way, pressed against the far side.

The not-really-dragon-speaker leaned against the bars and watched him, but didn't move to pursue again, tossing him one of the fish. Toothless snatched it up and ate it, but didn't take his eyes off the man even to blink. After some time had passed once more, the pfikingr tried again, and Toothless moved once more as well, until they were once again at opposite ends, and repeated the same stand-off again a short while later, Toothless throating a smug sort of dragon sound at the tricky but not tricky enough pfikingr.

He could see the calculation in those sky-colored eyes and was admittedly interested though still wary of what the pfikingr was going to do next and was trying to figure them out at the same time he could tell the human was trying to figure him out as well.

After some time deliberating, the pfikingr moved to the front of the cage and called out in his human gibberish until a couple of others of his own kind had gathered, talking to each other in their strange tongue. Those few moved away and returned with more thick, metal branches and circled around the cage, pulling the soft covering off entirely to settle on the ground behind the cage.

Toothless stood and eyed the group warily, tail slowly waving behind him nervously as he eyes the pfikingr move around the outside of his cage. One circled around the back and grabbed the end of the binding thing that led to his neck and heaved, pulling the Fury around and shortening his reach to move about. The black dragon snarled angrily at them and resisted, so that others had to join in pulling him.

A scraping noise sounded behind him and he looked to see a few of the new metal branches being woven between those of his cage to make it smaller and he shrieked warning at them and heard his dragon-boy bark out a worried-questioning noise to him Toothless worried angry Toothless hurt? Toothless hurt angry what wrong?

The dragon was already busy gathering fire in his throat to answer and blasted one through a gap in the cage, sending the pfikingr scattering with cries of fear and dismay as it barely missed and hit the rock wall behind them, screeching hatred at all of them with fully-bared teeth as he tried to turn and fire at them again, barely having the room to do that.

He snarled especially spitefully as green eyes landed on the not-really-dragon-speaking pfikingr watching him and the fact that he didn't seem afraid at all as he should have been and instead only calculatedly blank only made the dragon angrier for some reason, gathering up more fire in the back of his throat to blast the tricky dangerous pfikingr into oblivion.

He missed again as his enemy nimbly leapt away to the side and circled around, Toothless snarling rage and trying to turn after him, coming face-to-face with them and growling low and furious, though he couldn't angle himself right to fire another blast in the narrow maneuvering room that he had and was still struggling to fix that.

His shrieks died into a low, deadly growl that visibly rumbled through his entire chest, but the pfikingr didn't seem to have enough sense to be healthily afraid of him and started up with that lying kind-of-dragon noises again, offering up peace friendly peace calm peace calm.

Toothless only continued to rumble a low, reverberating growl and glared distrust, the only thing at this point keeping the dumb human alive being the metal trappings of the cage. Otherwise he would have ripped the male apart much, much earlier and done so with a great amount of ease and no remorse at all.

What was even more ridiculously foolish was that the pfikingr didn't seem wise enough to realize this fact and slowly reached a hand out towards his head, making those same cooing noises that were only lies to the dragon's ears and he snarled open rebellion at them, snapping the pfikingr's arm with his teeth fully exposed and yanking him against the bars.

He was twistedly satisfied to hear the metal branches clang and watch the wince of pain twist its way across the stupid human's face as the edges of the cage dug into his side, bracing one human paw against them but not trying to pull away, either because of fear or because he had figured out already that Toothless wasn't going to simply let him go and pulling away would be a bad idea that would only wound him since the dragon's teeth had hooked him but not broken flesh yet.

The other pfikingrs shouted and snarled at him, producing weapons and circling around to attack him with their sharp things. Toothless made a noise at the tricky one he'd trapped and their eyes met, staring at each other straight in the eye for a long moment.

So far the pfikingr had not harmed any of the dragons and had even let some of them go though to what end the Fury still couldn't figure out but if he really intended not to be an enemy to dragons and was trying to talk to and understand them at all then he would realize Toothless' true intentions and he wouldn't let the other pfikingr harm him.

Toothless could almost see the wheels in the pfikingr's head turning as they stared at each other and tried to size the other up before they finally barked at the other pfikingr in his human tongue and then snarled loudly when they didn't cease their charge so that they faltered and looked deeply conflicted about what to do, not retreating but likewise no longer advancing as they tried to figure out what was going on.

Toothless purred a brief moment of satisfaction but quickly stopped and yanked the man hard against the bars again when the tricky pfikingr tried to pull away, growling subtly at him you stay mine now stay listen free no listen stay mine you crazy tricky stay mine now until listen.

Again came the peace friendly calm friendly yes warbling and Toothless growled louder at him, digging his teeth in a little more until the pfikingr fell silent, staring at him and waiting and hopefully listening which was good and satisfying.

Toothless had tried and frustratedly failed to properly communicate even though the stupid pfikingr seemed to think he could talk to dragons and maybe he could fool dumber dragons but Toothless was proudly more clever than most of his kin and he wouldn't be placated by fake dragon-talking. They were going to communicate on his terms now and do it properly even if he had to hold the pfikingr here for days until he finally learned.

Now that he actually had the pfikingr where he needed him to be to force him to actually listen and understand though, he came to another problem. What did pfikingr communicate, anyway? They were not the same as dragons and since this one clearly did not understand nearly as much as he tried to pretend that he did it was going to be hard to get him to know what Toothless actually wanted much less to get a proper response from him that would make sense to either of them.

He supposed that he would have to treat it the way that a dragon would treat a hatchling just out of its egg but even that was different because hatchlings heard dragon voices from the moment the eggs were laid and were easy to teach but they were also not yet clever just like pfikingr so maybe he could make his captive understand just very simple things and see where that got him first.

He tried to think and the simplest thing that came to mind first were the new branches that made his space too small to move properly and it seemed the most straight-forward thing to do and since the pfikingr seemed to think Toothless was too dumb to know the difference between real dragon-speak and fake the Fury would merely have to show the pfikingr how quickly clever and knowing of things he really was. If nothing else, it would be a test to see how clever and able to understand the tricky pfikingr truly was and how much of his cleverness he might have been faking just like his dragon-talking.

Take free move these make bigger again move take he indicated as he pawed at the metal bars, giving his captive an imploring look and willing him to understand because if he couldn't even grasp something that simple then there was probably little hope he would understand anything else. He watched the pfikingr's eyes flick between him and the bars and turned his head towards the other pfikingr who still hadn't moved and were tensely watching as he spoke to them. Toothless watched them move warily around behind him on the other side of the cage, barely within his peripheral sight, and the metal branches moved and soon disappeared, giving him back some proper room to move and stretch out his wings and tail.

He purred approval but didn't let the pfikingr free yet, trying to think of how to proceed from there that wouldn't be too complicated for him to grasp and was glad that the pfikingr seemed content to wait without rushing things even if it was only because he could probably sense that Toothless wasn't ready to let him go and trying to force himself free would be a futile endeavor.

He supposed the next easiest thing to try and communicate would be the binding thing on his neck though he wasn't sure that the pfikingr would do that but if Toothless didn't give him a choice then he would have to if he expected to ever get his arm back and the Fury fully intended on using that to his advantage.

He planted a paw on the chain and indicated with a glance of his eyes, since that seemed to work fairly well so far, growling softly this too free off free this off too.

There was a noticeably moment of thoughtful hesitance, where Toothless wasn't sure if it was unease or lack of understanding that brought about still silence. After a brief lapse of time, the pfikingr looked at a loss, his lips twitching like he wanted to try to say something but having no idea how to do it. At the very least, he seemed to be truly thinking about how to communicate rather than placate which was a small step in the right direction and Toothless rumbled in imploring encouragement though the realization that he was trying to talk to a pfikingr of all the dumb things was never once far from his mind.

Hiccup didn't really count. He was sort-of pfikingr in body but in heart and soul and speech he was all dragon and Toothless' other half and the Fury would never think of him as anything less than a dragon.

They were interrupted as one of the other pfikingr started to speak from a distance at him and his captive talked back but Toothless could make no sense of it. He swelled slightly with hope that the binding thing was about to come off, but it never did, and Toothless guessed that the thing the pfikingr wanted to communicate and couldn't was that he wasn't going to be taking it off, much to the Fury's chagrin.

The dragon perked slightly as the pfikingr finally said something that he truly understood: his name. He blinked invitingly and waited for the pfikingr to continue, but once again he looked lost, concentrating hard on how to proceed.

The human shifted slightly and gave just enough of a tug on his arm that Toothless could feel it and the speech wasn't really there but they made a sound and he could still read the intention of what the pfikingr wanted to say and trying to get permission to have his arm back.

Toothless tugged back and snorted refusal no stay mine now listen still stay mine no you stay here.

He craned his head slightly as Hiccup confusedly called to him from his own cage a little further off, having been chattering off and on at him for a short while now though Toothless had been focused on his captive.

Who yours who Toothless-love fine maybe not hurt yes who yours?

Toothless purred smugly back tricky dragon liar speaking caught yes I caught proud have mine hunted got human mine proud stay caught free maybe you me we us yes maybe caught proud us free maybe yes.

The dragon's attention turned back to the pfikingr as they repeated his name again and then made a motion with their head, looking elsewhere. Toothless made a noise of question and the pfikingr repeated it, but Toothless still wasn't sure what he wanted. After a few more tries and some slight frustration later, he thought maybe the pfikingr was trying to ask something about his dragon-boy though that seemed a little bit odd because he would probably have an easier time communicating bigger specifics with his other half than he would with Toothless himself. Unless that was what the pfikingr was trying to say was that he would rather try talking to Hiccup but Toothless could not be sure.

Seeming to realize that his attempts to communicate were getting him nowhere, the pfikingr indicated towards Toothless with one hand and said his name again, then made a motion over his shoulder and a noise of question.

After a time though, Toothless lost patience and snorted, shaking his head abruptly and giving the pfikingr a look.

This communication thing was really not working out all that well. Why did he ever hope a pfikingr could understand or speak to him at all? Even if they were trying to understand, it was useless. Pfikingr were too dumb to understand or speak right.

He flexed his jaw slightly but didn't let the pfikingr go just yet, trying to think of it there was anything else he could do while he still had the male caught.

Hiccup would have had much better luck trying to make sense and make the pfikingr hear them but since his dragon-boy and him were apart then that made things more difficult and more frustrating but perhaps he could fix that and even get them free and tucked the pfikingr's arm as he tilted his head towards the door in indication.

The pfikingr took no time at all to figure it out but still didn't show that he would let the Fury go though Toothless had not expected him to easily and tried to think of how he might convince the other and decided his best bet would be to do similar as the pfikingr had done and started to warble those same sort of reassuring sounds back in question friendly peace no harm yes? Friendly no harm free friendly good will be trust yes?

The pfikingr stared at him for a long moment in thought and Toothless could sense his wariness but they replied to him friendly peace yes friendly but didn't carry on with it for long as if not sure if that was what Toothless wanted to hear back.

Toothless once again purred with approval and loosened his hold after a moment so that the pfikingr was free to pull away finally and bark something at the other pfikingr who soon hesitantly left to go elsewhere though they were still nervously watching from a distance away. The pfikingr circled around and Toothless rumbled eagerly to see the cage opened but they stopped before reaching the door and instead settled to sit to the side of the cage.

Toothless turned his head rapidly between the cage door and pfikingr a few times expectantly and tried to look as non-threatening and friendly as possible but they only made another noise at him that sounded like refusal and shook their head.

The dragon growled and flattened his ears back testily.

Bad tricked pfikingr tricked me bad not fair supposed to free you tricky bad you!

Either out of lack of understanding or lack of caring, the pfikingr simply shrugged at him and took one of the fish from the pfikingr carrying thing and held it out, though without getting close enough that Toothless could grab him through the bars again. The Fury gave him an angry look and grabbed the fish, yanking it back with a tantruming harshness and scarfing it down with a glare at them and considered blasting them with fire but from what he'd seen so far this one pfikingr was really the only one that cared for keeping the other humans from harming the dragons and dragon-boy so he second-guessed the impulse and instead only fantasized doing it. Over and over and over again until not even bones were left.

The pfikingr offered up another fish but Toothless didn't take it, glaring an I'm-still-very-mad-at-you kind of glare and snorting loudly to accentuate the look.

After a short while longer, the pfikingr tossed the rest of the fish in at the edge of the cage and Toothless contemplated grabbing him through the bars again but didn't and watched as the pfikingr sat down to watch him again.

Before much more time had passed, Toothless perked as he watched a black shape soar past and land on the pfikingr's shoulder and croak obnoxiously a few times. Only then did the human gaze leave him and instead go to the annoying black bird, warbling those sounds that were kind-of-but-not-dragon at it and the bird chattered back at him both noisily and quietly and nibbled at him with its long, sharp mouth and coo noises of affection and then craned its head forward as the pfikingr scratched behind its feathery head with one paw so that the bird crooned contently and snuggled up to the pfikingr's neck.

It was a curious thing watching and listening to the human and crow interact in both bird-speak and some human-speak thrown in seamlessly and vaguely reminded the Fury of his own interactions with his dragon boy even though Hiccup was somewhat human in body only even though Toothless never really thought of him that way and even though Toothless didn't talk to birds or – before today – humans, he could pick out most of what they were probably communicating and that they really did understand each other and weren't just pretending the way that the pfikingr had tried to pretend with him.

For the first time he might've understood what it could have been like for the pfikingr like the She-pfikingr or the red-furred Alpha to watch him and his dragon-boy together without really fully understanding their talk or mannerisms but knowing that they were close and understood each other even if no one else did and the Fury was interestedly content to watch for a while up until the pfikingr caught him staring and he pointedly glared again and turned away trying to act disinterested but failing as he kept watching them out of the corner of one jade eye.

Now the pfikingr was watching him again and turned away to lift his paw to his mouth and make a long, shrill whistling noise that made Toothless' ears sting and the dragon gave him a dirty as well as confused look because he had not heard pfikingr made such a strange noise before.

He quickly forgot that as he heard a heavy clack-clock-clack-ing noise and one of the strange preynoprey creatures appeared from further away in the bigger cave and was quickly gaining distance toward them and Toothless became increasingly wary as he stood and watched the crazy strange hunting preynoprey crazy thing come uncomfortably close, stopping just short of the pfikingr and shaking itself alertly.

Toothless eyed the animal and flared his nose and the preynoprey eyed him and flared its even bigger nose back as both creatures sized each other up. The pfikingr stood now, though he was still heavily dwarfed by the preynoprey and scratched its neck with one paw down to a hefty shoulder and the strange beast craned its head around and rubbed it against the pfikingr's back but didn't make much noise other than soft, bellowing breaths as its body rippled in an odd way down its back.

Unlike with the crow, the pfikingr spoke only on his own strange human tongue as he gently pushed the preynoprey back and made small motions with his paws and the preynoprey turned as if to leave but instead only spun all the way around with a little more distance and then posed and held itself that way other than angling its ears and watching Toothless through the cage and Toothless stared back at it with increasing fascination and only a hint more bravery but he could still remember fighting the creature that was at least as large as him and remember it lunging with teeth that weren't sharp but they were big and hard, lashing claws like rocks on the ends of its paws that had left him dizzy and hurting.

The pfikingr reached a hand out to touch the top of its head and it bowed its neck and walked forward slowly as the human talked to it until it had come closer to the bars and flared its nose at Toothless to take in his scent. The dragon wasn't as eager or ready to get close but the pfikingr made a reassuring noise at him – that he now recognized wasn't dragon-speak but bird-speak though they were somewhat similar – and a motion that he recognized the Uh st-r-r-r-TT did at Hiccup before that was supposed to mean come here but the Fury was reluctant.

Toothless eyed the creature warily and chattered wary alert crazy strange preynoprey danger alert caution strange? but the pfikingr continued to try and reassure him and still had a hand on the weird thing and was perhaps calming it with stroking touches on its neck and maybe to make it go away if it wasn't friendly but Toothless could not be sure.

With a low growl of uncertainty, Toothless slowly crept forward though he still kept some distance and eyed its sharp hard-striking feet and was ready to retreat at the faintest sign of danger as he craned his head and flared his nose to take in its odd scent that was mixed with human smell and the smallest scent of other dead prey-things like dragons often had on their breath but the smell was on its fur instead of its nose or mouth.

The preynoprey thing didn't lash out and only continued to sniff and snort at him curiously with ears and head angled forward and Toothless found some of his confidence returning and sniffed closer until their noses were almost touching though he was not bold enough to get any closer to such an odd creature that should have been a scared prey-thing but wasn't and even chased and fought dragons and won.

After Toothless drank its scent into his nose and it probably had done the same it lifted its head and gazed elsewhere in a relaxed, disregarding sort of fashion and after the pfikingr patted and scratched it with his paws and spoke to it the strange preynoprey creature began to walk away to the far end of the cave again with Toothless still watching it and almost somewhat disappointed to see the odd animal leave before he could figure out more about it since Toothless had never seen these sort of creatures before having come to this cave amongst these particular pfikingr.

The bird-speaker crouched down aside his cage now and caught Toothless' eyes, the dragon more simply cautious and curious than wary or distrusting but he still wasn't relaxed or trusting enough to give the pfikingr contact or let them touch him as they held one paw out invitingly for him to get close to and instead snatched up the fish and dragged them to the other side to finish eating.

The pfikingr seemed to either catch the hint or had grown tired of trying to get close so they stood and instead moved away at last to leave the dragon to eat in peace and solitude.