I suggest listening to "Dragons Den" from the HTTYD soundtrack to set the mood for the first half of this chapter.
Chapter 29: Arriving at the Nest
Off the coast of the Dragon's Nest
October 31
It didn't take long for Toothless to catch up with the other dragons. He began to slow down a bit as he flew right into the middle of their massive group.
Toothless looked all around at the different dragons that flew along with him. Gronckles flapped their wings so rapidly that Toothless could hardly see them. All the Zipplebacks' two necks wiggled as their heads bobbed up and down as they flew. The sounds of their flapping wings and different calls filled the air.
Many dragons turned their heads to observe the newcomer. Some tilted their heads curiously, others narrowed their yellow eyes suspiciously. It was clear to Toothless that these dragons had never seen any dragon like him. Thankfully, like all the dragons he came across in his travels, none of them made any attempt to shoo him away. That was a good sign. So maybe these dragons would let him stay where they were going.
Wherever they were going, they seemed to be getting close for Toothless could smells of land not too far away. He also scented something else – something dangerous. He knew that he would have to either fly away or stay and fight whenever danger was nearby. But for some reasons, none of the dragons were turning around. They just kept flying straight ahead. It was as if the unseen danger was pulling them towards it. Toothless could even be feeling himself being pulled towards it too.
As dark grey mist began to spread all around them, all the dragons dived downwards. Toothless followed their lead. Through the mist he could make out the tall structures of sea stacks. As he and the other dragons zig-zagged around them, Toothless looked up at the sea stacks to see if they looked like horned monsters like the ones outside the two-legged creatures' island. Thankfully there were none. Just plain old sea stacks.
Toothless could still hear the sounds of dragon calls and wing flapping all around him but now he was starting to hear something else in the distance – a low, deep, rumbling. And they were heading straight towards it.
Toothless was beginning to wonder if these dragons were crazy. Heading for an unknown sound instead of turning away. But he trusted them at the same time. Besides, they seemed to be familiar with this area and the rumbling sound.
The mist began to clear and Toothless saw straight ahead of them was an island. A tall mountain stood at the foothills of a pebbled beach below them.
Some dragons flew higher to enter the opening in the top of the mountain. Others were entering the mountain through smaller craters. Toothless flew right through one of the craters and followed some dragons through a tunnel right towards some red lighting.
Once they were out of the tunnel, Toothless found himself inside an enormous cave. Inside the cave were tall, rocky stacks where some dragons were perched. Other dragons were perched on the edges of the rocky walls of the cave. Toothless perched himself on a free space of one of the stacks and watched the rest of the dragons fly in through the openings of the cave.
All the dragons that had stolen meat and fish from the two-leggeds' island flew over an enormous pit below them and released them from their teeth and claws before flying over to the stacks and ledges.
Toothless watched in surprise as all the meat and fish disappeared within the fiery red mist of the pit. Why were they dropping their food into the fiery pit? They had practically risked their lives to steal all that food from an island full of mysterious creatures and their equally mysterious objects and they didn't even bother to eat any of it. Why?
Curiousity was rapidly getting the better of Toothless and so the Night Fury flew away from his perch and hovered over the red mist hoping to find a clue as to why these dragons were dropping their catches all the way to the bottom of their den.
Suddenly all the dragons began to let out panicked cries to him.
"What are you doing?!"
"Get away from there!"
"She'll get you!"
Toothless looked all around at the crying dragons, perplexed. Who was this she they were mentioning in their calls? And why would she get him?
Suddenly from the depths of the red mist came the low, deep, rumbling growl he had heard on his way to the island. But now it sounded really close.
All the dragons stopped crying out to Toothless and backed away, trying to get as close to the corners of their sheltered stacks as they possibly could.
Toothless could see something dark and enormous emerging from the red mist below him – something with dark gray-and-red scales, six eyes like a spider and large, sharp teeth lining the outline of its mouth.
It was a dragon head and it was the largest dragon head Toothless had ever seen in his life!
The giant dragon opened its wide mouth and growled at the Night Fury and all the dragons in the cave cried out to him again.
"GET AWAY!"
And that's exactly what Toothless did. He flew upwards and thanks to his speedy flying, he was able to escape just as the giant gray-and-red dragon snapped at him. Still making his way towards the entrance at the top of the mountain-den, Toothless looked downwards and saw that a lot of the dragons had left their perches and were flying out with him. The giant dragon let out a thunderous roar (a roar that seemed to challenge a Thunderdrum's roar) as it climbed the stacks of the den as high as it could and snapped at the escaping dragons.
Toothless could see that a few of the dragons weren't so lucky and ended up disappearing into the giant dragon's gaping mouth. Then it lowered itself back within the fiery mist and disappeared, its hunger obviously satisfied.
Once he was out of the den, Toothless began to fly away from this island and towards the mist and sea stacks. He and the dragons had to get out of here before that giant monster made its way out of the mountain and chased them all.
But for some reason, none of the other dragons followed Toothless. They were all flying down to the pebbled beach surrounding the mountain instead of away from it. And there was no sign or sounds of the giant dragon crumbling its way out of the mountain. But Toothless kept flying until he reached some of the sea stacks standing real far from the nest just to be on the safe side.
He perched himself on a stack and sat there, waiting. He kept his ears perked up, trying to pick up any sounds of crumbling mountains, crying dragons and the giant one's thunderous roar. He dared not blink even once should he see the monster's giant figure flying out of the mist, crashing sea stacks in its path.
But there were none.
He couldn't make out any dragon figures flying towards him, big or little. And the only sounds he could make out were the normal, every-day sounds of dragons with the occasional squawk of seagulls.
Toothless was perplexed but he figured it was safe. So he took off from his perch and began to fly back towards the nest.
He felt stupid flying all the way back to an island where there dwelled a giant dragon that ate smaller dragons but what other choice did he have?
Once he arrived back at the island, he saw that the mountain was still intact. So the giant dragon didn't make any attempt to escape after all. He wondered why though. After all, a dragon that size had enough strength to knock down a whole series of mountains.
He looked down and saw a lot of dragons resting at the foothills of the great mountain and flew down to join them. After all, he was curious to know why they would stay here of all places when they could very much run away from this awful place.
As he landed on the beach, his feet felt as though they were sinking deep into the pebbles. Again, all eyes, turned towards him. Some dragons looked at him admirably as though impressed by his courage to dare to go near the giant dragon. Others tilted their heads curiously and the rest narrowed their eyes suspiciously.
As proud as Toothless was to have faced the giant dragon, he felt slightly uncomfortable with the other dragons staring at him. So he began to walk around, looking for a spot to rest.
He approached a small group of Monstrous Nightmares. Some looked at him curiously, others growled threateningly as though they didn't want him coming near. Among them was the fiery-red Nightmare he had watched in the battle with the two-legged creatures and he was one of the Nightmares that growled threateningly.
As Toothless came even closer, the red Nightmare suddenly jumped and blocked his way.
"Back off, stranger!" he snarled. "This spot is for the best kind of dragon. And are you the best dragon? No! So back off!"
The Nightmares that were suspicious growled in agreement. The curious Nightmares eyes filled with pity as they watched the newcomer being threatened.
Toothless glared at the red Nightmare before walking away. That particular Nightmare sure showed a lot of nerve. He understood that some dragons were territorial and didn't want others coming too close to their turf but to declare themselves the best kind of dragon?
Although the memories of his family were slowly becoming blurry, Toothless still remembered how his father taught him and his siblings to not let their pride get the better of them. After all, all kinds of dragons were fine in their own unique way.
As he walked around the beach, he heard a soft, urging call. He looked up and saw that the call was coming from a tan-colored Gronckle. She was in the midst of a small Gronckle group and right next to them was a group of Nadders.
"You can rest around here if you want," the tan Gronckle called.
"Thank you," Toothless replied, slowly approaching. "I guess I can stay here for a while."
Toothless approached the Nadders and Gronckles then sat down a few feet from them so as to give them some space.
The dragons were silent for a minute then a sky blue Nadder opened her mouth.
"You're new around here, aren't you?" she squawked gently.
Toothless nodded.
"We saw you hovering over the Queen," the sky blue Nadder squawked gently.
A navy blue Nadder nodded. "That was a very brave thing to do."
"No one else would have done that," a purple Gronckle grunted.
"That monster is your queen?" Toothless asked in disbelief as he looked up at the mountain where the queen dragon dwelled.
The sky-blue Nadder nodded. "She's lived in our nest for the longest time."
"Even longer before a lot of us here were born," the tan Gronckle added.
"But why do you stay here with her?" Toothless asked. "Why don't you leave?"
The Gronckles and Nadders looked at each other, sadness in their yellow eyes.
"We could leave if we wanted to," an orange Nadder replied.
"But we don't know where else to go," a red Gronckle added.
"And besides, the queen always threatened that if we all did leave here and never returned, then she would break free out of that mountain, track us down and destroy us along with every other dragon that fly these skies," the sky-blue Nadder explained.
"So we have no choice but to remain here and serve her," the tan Gronckle finished.
Toothless looked all around at the beach where most of the dragon herds rested. Then he looked up at the mountain where he knew the rest were still perched on top of the stacks – their only places where they'd be safe from the Queen's jaws. All these dragons were slaves to that giant dragon and they were not free to leave the island permanently or else she would escape and find them…and then kill them.
"The only times we ever leave the island is when we must hunt for food everytime she gets hungry," the sky-blue Nadder continued. "Sometimes we catch fish from the island's watering holes or from the sea."
"Other times, we go to the humans' island where they have a large amount of meats, fish and smaller animals," the red Gronckle.
"They seem to eat almost as much as the Queen," the navy blue Nadder added.
"Humans?" Toothless echoed, confused. Then his eyes lit up. "The two-leggeds!"
The Nadders and Gronckles tilted their heads in confusion.
"I was at that island just earlier," Toothless explained.
"You were?" the tan Gronckle asked. "I don't recall seeing you there."
The others nodded in agreement.
"I was hiding on top of a cliff overlooking their land and I watched you and the rest of the dragons fight the two-legged creatures you call humans. I've never seen any creatures like them before or their woodpile dens or their shiny sticks."
The sky-blue Nadder nodded. "They certainly are different than other creatures we've lived among."
"Because of that, even going to their island is a risk," the red Gronckle grunted.
Toothless' pupils constricted slightly. "I saw the way they treated you. Striking you with their shiny sticks and their colored pieces of wood."
The dragons nodded their heads gravely, their pupils also constricted.
"And many of us don't make it out of the island alive," the orange Nadder growled.
"This was one of those few nights where we were lucky to avoid their shiny sticks and colored wood," the tan Gronckle grunted gravely. "Lucky enough to bring back some of their food to our Queen."
"And even when we bring her enough food, that doesn't stop her from attacking us," the purple Gronckle said sadly.
"And I saw that some dragons couldn't escape her as the rest of us did," Toothless said.
The dragons nodded sadly.
"All my life, I've seen many creatures struggle to survive," Toothless warbled. "But all these dragons on this island have the biggest struggle of all. Gathering enough food to feed yourselves and your Queen. And every day you risk death from either her or the humans."
"It's the biggest struggle we all go through," the sky blue Nadder squawked sadly.
With nothing left to say, Toothless walked away from the Nadders and Gronckles and hopped onto a rock slab nearby. Sitting on his haunches, Toothless thought about what to do next.
He looked up at the tall mountain, fiery red mist lighting the small cracks on its sides. From where he sat, he could hear the usual cries of the Nadders, Zipplebacks, Gronckles and Nightmares along with the soft, deep rumbling of the Queen Dragon. He could possibly stay on this island with all the others. And he didn't even have to stay inside the mountain, he could just stay out here where it was safe…at least until the day the Queen Dragon broke out.
Or he could leave here. After all, thousands of dragons dwelled on this island. The Queen Dragon might not notice one missing. He'd feel bad having to leave the rest of the dragons to deal with the carnivorous Queen but why stay on an island where a giant dragon that dined on smaller dragons lived? And he were certain that there were other islands around here.
The trouble was this part of the world was all so new to him. If he had left, we wouldn't know where to start looking for other islands and he didn't even know how far he'd have to travel to get to one.
So far, the only island that he knew was nearby was the one where the humans lived. Maybe, just maybe, he could go back there. That island was made up of a few cliff bases. He could just roost on one of those cliff bases far away from the humans and their woodpiles.
The trouble with that was he knew very little about humans. Tonight he had just seen those creatures for the very first time in his life. The only things he got to know about them was that they dwelled in large woodpile dens, they wore animal horns/antlers, they walked on their hind legs and instead of attacking with teeth and claws as most creatures did, they attacked with shiny sticks and colorful pieces of wood.
He didn't know whether they were more active in the daytime or the nighttime. He didn't know if their night vision was good or poor. If they could see and smell well in the dark, then they would track him down for sure and finish him off.
Maybe it would be better just to stay put on this island…even if it was the home to an enemy.
Walking in a circle, he heated the top of the slab with his plasma breath, extinguished the tiny flames with his paws and laid down.
As he waited for sleep to take over his body, Toothless tried to think about his family. Although the memories of his parents and siblings were slowly becoming bleary in his mind, he could still imagine what they would think of this place and the Queen.
His father, Dusk, would never have wanted his family to dwell on this island, not when there lived a giant dragon that could threaten their lives. He would've risked his life for them and take their place inside the Queen's jaws – just as he had risked his life in the tusked dragons' tails.
If his poor mother, Sapphire hadn't sacrificed her life to the tusked dragons long ago, then she certainly would've made said sacrifice today to that Queen. She would've urged him and his siblings to run for it while she stayed behind and faced the Queen and her death with dignity.
As the oldest of the bunch, Big One would've taken her responsibilities seriously, as usual, and defended him and the others against that Queen dragon.
Biter may have liked using his teeth for playtime and/or defense but even he wouldn't have dared to try and bite that monster.
That would've been a relief to Soft Paws. Without Biter, who would he chase rabbits or play tug-of-war with tree branches with?
Noserubber may had been the gentlest and kindest of the family, but she would've cared more about her own family and even all the other dragon families rather than the Queen that controlled all these families mercilessly.
As his eyelids started to grow heavy, Toothless shot one last glance at the fiery mountain. He never imagined that this place would end up becoming his new home but he supposed this would have to do.
