The next day Toothless and Hiccup set out early. They spent most of their day searching, but turning up nothing.
"Damn." Toothless hissed under his breath. "I really thought this is where she'd be. I know that she liked being in a part of a group. So I assumed. I should have tried to keep in contact with her. What a great asset she could have been. If I only, so stupid." Hiccup got his attention and guided them down to a small clearing. He climbed off his mount and circled around to his front. Hiccup got down on his knee and cupped the dragon's face.
"Hey. Hey. It's gonna be okay bud. So she wasn't here. You knew that it was a long shot that she was here, so you can't beat yourself up about this.
When we get back we'll send out scouts for her. Send them to the different territories. Have them ask around. It'll be okay, okay?" Hiccup comforted. Toothless sighed, nuzzling his cheek into Hiccup's hand.
"Thanks Hiccup." He whispered. "We should head back so we can talk to the Alpha." Hiccup nodded and hopped back onto Toothless.
Toothless lazily flew to the 'living area' of the Change Wings. When they landed, the Alpha quickly joined them.
"So did you find who you were looking for?" He asked.
"Sadly not." Hiccup sighed.
"That's unfortunate . If you wish I will continue to have people look for her. In case she appears here."
"That would be wonderful, thank you." Hiccup smiled.
"If we want to get back before dark, we should leave soon." Toothless said. Hiccup nodded.
"Let me give some directions to my people and we can leave." Toothless and Hiccup found a spot to wait. They watched the Alpha move around, speaking with some of the others before rejoining them.
"Ready?" Hiccup asked.
"Yep. Let's go." The small group rose into the air. Toothless lead them towards their home. The flight was long and slow. Hiccup and the Alpha talked about how he came into his power.
"How did you become the Alpha?" Hiccup yelled over the wind.
"It took a long time." He responded. "My father was the Alpha before I was. He was a great leader and well respected. I used to look up to him. He was the ideal leader, rough around the edges? Sure. But that's who he was."
Toothless laughed deep in his throat. "It seems that you two have more in common than you think."
"Oh?" The Change Wing wondered.
"You basically just described my dad. Without the hate for dragons." Hiccup said sadly.
"My father wasn't too fond of the other species, if that counts."
Toothless chuckled again. "Did you two have the same father?" He joked. Hiccup huffed through his nose.
"I hope your relationship with your father was better than mine." Hiccup frowned. Toothless bounced them up and down, making Hiccup laugh.
"There it is." Toothless smiled. Hiccup leaned forward hugging around his dragon's neck.
"Thanks bud."
"You two seem very close. How did you meet?"
"I hurt him very badly. Caused him a lot of pain and the inability to fly on his own. I know he looks fine now but there was a long time that he couldn't get away, because he couldn't fly. I know there were a few times where he would have left me and never came back." Hiccup tightened his grip around Toothless' neck again.
"I will admit that he has made angry in the past. But not enough to ever leave. It's likely that Hiccup would have died without me. Not because he couldn't live without me but because he could still get sick at the time. And in the winter humans can get sick easily. We've had a few close calls and I've almost lost him a few more." Toothless shivered at the thought.
"I'm sorry to hear that. But it seems like you, Night Fury fly just fine, and you halfling, only look like a human because you stand on two legs. So what changed?"
"We got lucky." Hiccup whispered. "I don't know where we'd be or what we'd look like but if we weren't who we are, we wouldn't be here."
"You'll have to elaborate."
"We were never supposed to be born. Apparently we were an oddity. Our souls found each other and refused to separate. We were caught in a see through container and brought to Freya as a gift. But she broke the container on accident and I escaped. She didn't have much of a choice on whether or not to release Toothless. After many years, Toothless and I found each other. And that's when I hurt him. Shot him out of the sky with a ballista I created. Tangled him up in some bollas and ripped his tail fin off.
Back then I wanted to be the son my father always dreamed of. Strong and ruthless, able to lead by example and bring my people to glory. But obviously that didn't happen.
When I found Toothless, he was basically blacked out. Almost totally unresponsive. I was going to kill him. No doubt in my mind. He was the enemy and I had a perfect chance to be famous. Just kill the Night Fury and everyone will know my name, girl running over each other just to talk to me, marry who I want, bed who I want. Nothing would have been able to touch me." Hiccup boasted.
"So what changed your mind?" The Alpha had to know. He could feel Hiccup's story giving him energy. "Please. Tell me, I have to know."
"What stopped me was, he looked at me. There was this fear in him. And I couldn't do it, so I cut him free. And now we're here." Hiccup looked up for the first time. He was surprised to see how close they were to their home. "Follow us through the fog or you'll get lost." The Alpha fell in behind them.
They twist and turned, narrowly missing the barely seeable, jagged, spires of rock. The Alpha had a little trouble but poked through into the safe zone.
"Welcome to our home." Toothless flew them around the mountain. A Deadly Nadder joined them. Hiccup turned to them and waved. "Go tell the rest that we're back and we have a guest." The Nadder fell out of formation towards their home. Moments later, dragons poured out from every which way.