Parenthood. It was heart-warming, exciting and…oh so exhausting. Toothless had been worried about hurting the Night Lights, but he was starting to wonder if they would be the death of him instead. They would not sleep through the entire night or day. Toothless wondered when they would eventually be too tired to stay conscious. He hoped it would be soon, but there was no indication of that happening. The father just watched as the little dragons wrestled with each other, acting like they had not just spent the entire morning climbing on various parts of the cave. One Night Light pounced another, gnawing at his ear flap.
"No gnawing on your brother," Toothless chided.
"But Dad," the hatchling whined, "it's fun!"
"Yeah!" the gnaw victim agreed, starting to run around.
Their sister was in the back, hiding in the shadows. When she saw an opening, she darted forward and tackled both of her brothers. They yelped, then started chasing her when she rolled off of them. Toothless tried to get in the middle, pawing the green-eyed and black dragon. As soon as he did, the mostly white dragon hopped onto a free paw of his father's. He did this as the sister kept running in a circle around them. Toothless sighed heavily before looking at his mate. She put a paw over her snout as she chuckled.
"Thanks so much for your help," the king said sarcastically.
"Oh, you're doing perfectly, Dear."
"If a Bewilderbeast couldn't control hatchlings, I'm not sure why I thought I could," Toothless commented, feeling a tackle on his tail.
He looked down at the little dragons. They had been alive for a few weeks and something was missing.
"We need to name them."
The Light Fury glanced at him in surprise. "Names? We don't really need those."
"It seems odd to just call them Night Lights. I won't always be able to call them hatchlings either."
"You can call me Son!" the dragon on Toothless's tail suggested.
The king chuckled and brought his tail forward to look at the reptile. "I could, but then you wouldn't know if I was talking to you or your brother."
"Oh yeah."
The blue-eyed dragon beamed. "I'm the only daughter, so I'd know."
Her brothers let out little warbles of complaint.
"I think it'll just be easier if you all have official names."
"Mommy doesn't have one."
"No, but a great friend of mine gave me one."
"Really?"
"Yes, I used to not go by anything, but I really like 'Toothless' now. Your aunts and uncles got names later in life too."
Toothless turned to the Light Fury again. She seemed open to the idea. It was a bit strange for dragons to give each other names like humans would, but it was harmless.
"What kinds of names would you like? Little Toothless?" she asked.
The king chuckled at the pouty faces of the hatchlings. "No, nothing like that, but I do want it to describe them in some way."
Toothless looked at the trio, moving his paw off the one. As soon as he did, the mostly white dragon tackled his brother again.
"Pouncer," the father said. "Definitely Pouncer."
This made Pouncer appear proud of his new name. Toothless turned his attention to his daughter. She had not stopped speeding around the cave, but her other brother had started pursuing her.
"Dart," Toothless added. "All that speed that she has makes it work for her. And finally…Ruffrunner. You've been running around a lot too, but you're scrappy."
"Yeah! I'm scrappy!" Ruffrunner declared happily.
The Light Fury smiled and went over to her mate. "Barf and Belch will be happy when they hear the first half of his name."
Toothless nuzzled his head against hers. "I'm sure of it. What do you think?"
"I like their names."
"We do too!" the triplets cheered.
They began play-fighting again, but Toothless thought of a way to get them to stop.
"We're going out," he said.
"We are?" Ruffrunner asked.
"Yes, we'll visit Meatlug and her family. I almost forgot that she invited us over to do a team flight class."
Immediately, the Night Lights started looking nervous.
"We're gonna have to fly?" Dart asked.
"What if we fall?" Pouncer inquired.
"We'll be there to catch you," his mother assured him.
The siblings still looked nervous, but they could see the confidence on their parents' faces. They trusted that the leaders would not try to do anything to cause them to get hurt.
"Okay," Pouncer said. "I guess it'll be fun to see Auntie Meatlug too."
"And it'll be the push she needs to get those hatchlings of hers to fly," Toothless mentioned to his mate.
She let out a warble of agreement and the family started heading out of the cave. The Night Lights still were so new to the world, but they always loved going into their habitat. They had many questions about the dragons around them, the plants, the water, and anything else they could sense. Fortunately, it was known that any of these questions (and many more that they did not even think of) would be answered by their honorary aunt. When they reached the rocky home, the family saw a group of Gronckles.
"You made it!" Meatlug greeted excitedly.
Beside her was her mate. The other dragon was trying to wrangle a cluster of tiny Gronckles. When he noticed the others, he gave them a tired grin.
"Glad you all could join us. I've been trying to get Meatlug to agree that we need to teach them how to fly."
"They're so young, though," the mother commented, going over to nuzzle her head against a hatchling.
"They're two weeks older than the Night Lights," her partner reminded her.
Meatlug hesitated. "They are, but…but they're our hatchlings. I don't want them to get hurt and fall."
At that, Pouncer looked horrified. "I knew we were gonna fall! Even Auntie's worried."
Realizing what she had done, Meatlug sent an apologetic look to the other parents.
"It's going to be alright," Toothless insisted. "Flying is easy. It comes naturally. You'll see."
Still looking doubtful, the triplets went over to the mini Gronckles. The bumpy hatchlings were eager to begin playing with them. Toothless wondered how the young dragons could already forget their worries in such a short time.
"Is that normal?" he asked.
"It is," Meatlug assured him. "Hatchlings live in the moment. Their memories will get better as they grow."
"For now," the other Gronckle said, "we'll just have to keep them on track."
He hovered over to the little reptiles, scooping up several in his mouth. They were delighted by this and grinned as he started bringing the Gronckles into the air. Meatlug grabbed those he could not carry, then the triplets looked at their parents. Toothless carried their sons in his paws while the Light Fury got Dart.
"They're gonna drop us," Pouncer lamented.
"I'm ready for it!" Ruffrunner exclaimed, even though his eyes were tightly shut.
"We're not going to drop you," Toothless assured the hatchlings.
To his dismay, he saw Meatlug's mate open his mouth more. It caused some of the Gronckles to slide out. As soon as they did, the Night Lights roared in horror. Meatlug also looked horrified, but the hatchlings were fast to flap their wings. Long before they were anywhere near the ground, they were flying.
"We're doing it!" one of them cheered, clumsily flying towards her father.
"Knew that you could!" he told her.
Meatlug felt like she could breathe again, then noticed the Gronckles in her mouth moving forward to get a better look.
"I wanna try!"
"Me too!"
Very slowly, Meatlug started to let the dragons climb out. They squealed in delight and flapped their wings. Soon, happy roars were coming from all of them. It made the Night Lights want to try as well.
"They're really flying," Dart said, impressed.
"See?" Toothless commented. "Told you that it's not difficult."
The Furies kept flying until they reached the top of a cave. Once there, the parents set down their hatchlings. The trio rushed forward, looking over the edge with intrigue. It was both scary and exciting. Their friends had done this. They could as well. To help, Toothless stepped one paw off the cliff, then another as his wings flapped. The Light Fury did the same on the other side of the young reptiles.
"We'll be right here to catch you," the king stated.
Taking a deep breath, Ruffrunner ran back, then charged for the edge. His wings started flapping and his legs moved wildly.
"Woah!" he cried.
It felt so bizarre, but he realized something. He was doing it.
"Dad! Mom! I'm flying!" he exclaimed, laughing in glee.
"Look at you!" Toothless encouraged warmly.
Ruffrunner started flying towards his siblings. "You've gotta try this!"
Dart was the next to go forward. She flapped her wings and started to see how fast she could go. The Night Light nearly flew into her father's side, but she stopped herself in time.
"This is fun!" she admitted, darting around more.
Not wanting to be left out, Pouncer leapt into the air as well. It took him the longest to sync up his wings so that they would flap together. Toothless came up beside him to make sure that he would not hit the ground just in case something went wrong. Happily, the father saw the wings move in unison. Pouncer began going higher in the air and beamed.
"I can do it too!"
The triplets flew around each other, trying to spar in the air.
"Good to know that it won't matter if they're on the ground or not," the Light Fury said. "They're always going to be play-fighting."
Toothless chuckled in agreement as he watched them and the young Gronckles. The group continued to fly for a while longer until the parents saw that the hatchlings were getting very tired.
"I think this is enough for today," Toothless said, leading to a chorus of "aw"s.
"Just a few more minutes," Ruffrunner requested.
"Not this time. You've been flying all day. Let's head down."
The king led the way and was followed by the other dragons. On the way, he sensed Stormfly approaching.
"The Hidden World has some new flyers," she commented. "Good."
"You should've seen them in the beginning," Toothless quietly told her, making the Deadly Nadder chuckle.
The Night Lights went over to her and Dart landed on her head near the horn crown.
"We're neat now!" she exclaimed. "We're gonna know how to do everything Mom and Dad can do."
"Yeah!" Pouncer agreed. "We'll be shooting plasma at everything before you know it!"
"I'm sure that you will," Stormfly said.
"And then we'll explore and see the world like you all did!"
Hearing this, the friends turned to the triplets in surprise.
"What?" Toothless asked.
"You know, with the humans," Ruffrunner added. "Everybody in the Hidden World talks about that."
"Everybody?" the queen asked.
"Well…maybe not everybody. Uncle Barf and Uncle Belch. They talk about it a lot."
"Of course they do," Meatlug said, sighing softly.
"It sounded like so much fun!" Pouncer admitted. "You got to save a bunch of dragons from bad Vikings and even would carry good Vikings on your backs. I wanna do that one day."
"Well, those days are in the past," Toothless said. "We don't let Vikings ride on our backs anymore."
"Why not?"
"It's to keep us safe. That's why we live here away from everyone."
"Aw! I wanted to meet that one-legged Viking. He was like you with your tail, Dad," Dart commented, disappointed.
"He is. He's the one who made the tail I'm using."
"Really?"
"Barf and Belch didn't tell you that part?"
"No, they just talked about the explody moments," Ruffrunner stated.
"I guess that's not much of a surprise." Toothless paused, a thoughtful look crossing his face. "We're going to find your other uncles and see if they want to be part of a story time."
This made the little dragons' eyes brighten. The group went to the center of the island while Stormfly quickly went to retrieve the other reptiles. Grump sleepily was walking towards them.
"Why did I have to get up?"
"I wanted to see if you all would be up for sharing some stories with the Night Lights and little Gronckles about our time before coming here."
Immediately, Hookfang puffed up proudly. "If you want stories, I'm your dragon. I've got plenty from back then. The amount of times I've lit Snotlout on fire…" The Monstrous Nightmare started to have a bright twinkle in his eyes. "Sometimes, I can still see his roasting trousers when I close my eyes."
"Don't forget about all the battles we've had," Skullcrusher added. "Some of our enemies were really powerful, but we were always able to stop them. We just had to find the best plan."
"And remember the explosions!" Barf cheered.
"So many, but never enough," Belch chimed in.
Grump yawned loudly. "I liked the calmer moments with Gobber. I could just sleep while he worked by the forge, then eat whatever he didn't want or need. It was nice. You don't find scrap metal like that around here."
"It was nice when I met you all too," Cloudjumper admitted. "Nobody made me feel like an outsider." He looked at the hatchlings. "I was from a different flock, but your parents and their friends welcomed me like I'd always been one of them. It meant a lot."
Hookfang held in a smile. "No need to get all serious on us. Your sniffing habits took some getting used to, but once that was done, the rest was easy."
"What made it easier was how the Berkians got us to see so many new kinds of dragons," Meatlug shared. "For a while there, we were finding new species every week."
"Was it ever scary?" one of her hatchlings asked.
"Never!' Hookfang boldly declared.
His friends turned to him, eyes full of doubt.
"Maybe sometimes," he admitted. "Barely. Not to me."
"It was mostly a lot of fun," Barf said.
"We helped the Berkians get stronger and they did the same for us," Stormfly added.
"We were a true team," Toothless mentioned, smiling slightly.
A look of uncertainty appeared on the Night Lights' faces.
"Then," Dart started, "why'd you all leave?"
A brief silence hit the group.
"There was another Viking," Toothless divulged. "He was responsible for the Night Furies and Light Furies nearly going extinct. We defeated him, but he made us realize that it was just too dangerous to stay. We'd bring more violent humans to Berk and cause our friends to get hurt. Berk was starting to get overpopulated with dragons anyway, so it was just time to leave."
"Don't you miss everybody?" Pouncer asked.
"Of course," Meatlug answered. "Every day."
"But we work through it," Skullcrusher said. "We've handled worse."
"Do we have to stay hidden forever?" Ruffrunner inquired. "Couldn't we just go into the rest of the world every once in a while? We could be stealthy. We probably wouldn't get seen by anybody."
This caused the friends to feel unsure. They had grown so accustomed to the Hidden World. Going back out would be strange.
"I think we should," the queen said, surprising the others.
"You do?" Stormfly asked.
"Yes. They're right. A short expedition won't be dangerous. All of you had longer ones when we were trying to get the rest of the dragons to come here. We don't have to make a habit of this, but it could be nice for the hatchlings to see what the world has to offer."
The young dragons cheered happily upon hearing this. Toothless thought over it, then nodded.
"Alright. Tomorrow morning, we'll go. Like you said, there's no harm in going out from time to time. It's good to get new surroundings."
The hatchlings kept cheering, joyfully tackling each other. Their emotions were more plainly felt than their adult counterparts. To these dragons, they were not sure what they felt. Excitement? Maybe. Uncertainty? Most likely. They told several stories of their adventures with the Dragon Riders before it was time for the hatchlings to get ready for bed. Toothless was sure that the Night Lights would protest, but to his shock, they were ready to sleep. They wanted to be wide awake for the next day and if going to sleep meant it came faster, they would do just that. While they rested, Toothless decided that he felt indifferent. It was simpler to feel that way than to admit to himself that he desperately wanted the next day to end. Not so much because he disliked the idea of being out of the Hidden World, but because the end of the day would bring answers with it. He would know exactly how everything had gone. That was knowledge he craved but did not possess. At last, the day came to provide him with these. He did not have to awaken the young Night Lights. They were the ones who got him up.
"We're gonna explore!" they shouted, ecstatic.
It was difficult to not share a sliver of their enthusiasm. Toothless found himself smiling as he and the Light Fury left the cave with them. The other dragons gradually got up to join their companions near the entryway of the Hidden World. Sharing a glance, the group took off. They flew for a short while. None of them wanted to tire out the new flyers too badly. The young dragons were thrilled with everything they saw. The ocean was shimmering in the sunrise and the sky was filled with so many colors. Below them were the clouds that looked fluffy enough to land on. Suddenly, Stormfly tilted her head. Toothless notice and tensed up. He knew what this meant. Vikings. They were close to the Hidden World.
"Everyone, stay here," he instructed.
The Night Fury dove down, spotting a small land mass. He wanted to get a good view of the humans first. That way, he could determine how best to attack if necessary. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the other Furies heading down with him. He could have tried to get them to go back, but that would have just caused more of a scene and drawn attention. So, Toothless reluctantly landed with them. They saw a ship. Immediately, Toothless flew forward and landed on part of the vessel. It was a good thing that they had gone out that day. Now, he could ensure that the lives of his dragons were protected. He would get rid of this threat. The Night Fury looked at the group. How dangerous were they? He saw two children. One was blond and the other had auburn hair. They matched their parents. Toothless thought of his own young ones and did not attack. He just needed a way to make the Vikings leave, but he would not kill anyone in front of their children. The king only needed a proper solution: intimidation. He could use that to frighten the family away without hurting them. Gradually, Toothless neared the man and got on his hind legs. To his surprise, the Viking did not back away. He was actually talking, but Toothless was not paying attention to what he was saying. The king of dragons just needed him to leave…then there was that move.
"Hiccup?" Toothless asked, pupils widening.
The Viking's hand was outstretched to Toothless's snout. Only one Viking did that when he saw a Night Fury. Toothless started to feel warmth in his heart. It was overwhelming. It seemed too good to be true.
"Hiccup!" he exclaimed happily, tackling the Berkian.
They played on the ground and Toothless ran around the ship excitedly. When Hiccup tried to sit back up, the dragon playfully knocked him back. He heard Astrid laughing behind them.
"It's so good to see you!" Toothless admitted. "It's been ages! I can't believe I almost didn't recognize you. That beard of yours distracted me." More excitement filled him as he pawed and nuzzled next to Hiccup's face. "Quit moving so much," he lightly chastised. "I'm trying to get a better look at you. What else changed? It looks like your clothes are different now." He licked his friend's face. "It's just so good to see you. I've missed you."
Toothless smiled brightly at Hiccup as the Viking held out his hands. The Night Fury was happy to lick those as well. It was amazing to be reunited with his best friend. Finally, he let the Viking breathe and glanced behind him. Astrid appeared a bit different from how he had recalled too, but his attention was mostly on the two little Vikings.
"You're a dad too!" he commented. "They remind me of you when you were little."
The children looked absolutely terrified of him, hiding near their mother. Gently, she started bringing them over to the friends. Hiccup showed them how to hold their hands and Toothless waited patiently. He was ready to greet the mini Berkians, but he did not want to interfere with a lesson. He knew how difficult it was to teach young ones, so he would not ruin this for Hiccup. When they were ready, he pressed his snout against their hands. Just like their parents. He could tell that they would be friends to his family as well. It was only natural. Immediately, the children were delighted. Their eyes were filled with joy and their faces had broken into smiles. Toothless turned his head slightly to where the rest of the dragons were.
"It's safe!" he called out.
The other reptiles came forward. With wide eyes, the Berkians greeted the dragons. Stormfly flew over to Astrid, getting a hug on her snout.
"I missed you," the Nadder said.
The other dragons looked around, not seeing the rest of the Berkians.
"I'll be back," Hookfang said. "I'm going to try to find Snotlout."
Meatlug had a brightness in her eyes as she spoke. "And I'm going to find Fishlegs."
Barf and Belch headbutted happily. "Ruff, Tuff, here we come!"
The king wished them luck as they flew to New Berk to find their companions. It was something that they all deserved. While they did this, Toothless Fury eagerly offered to provide a ride to Hiccup's son.
"I thought we didn't offer rides, Dad!" Pouncer remembered.
"I can make exceptions sometimes," Toothless admitted.
Hiccup's eyes moved to the Night Lights and he smiled, going over to them. "You're also a dad now, Bud?"
"Yeah," Toothless answered even though he knew he would not be understood. "They know how to keep us busy. Pouncer, Dart, Ruffrunner, meet another uncle and aunt of yours. They're Hiccup and Astrid."
Excitedly, the Night Lights flew over to the Dragon Riders. They enjoyed how the humans could pet them. Hiccup's arms felt warm as he held the baby dragons. Toothless could see that his friend loved them nearly as much as he did and he already knew that he felt the same about the young Berkians. Hiccup and his son got on the dragon's back, then Toothless took off. There was that weight again. It had not felt right to fly alone. Ten years and nothing could make the Night Fury forget what it was like to be around the Berkian. They soared through the skies, getting joined by Stormfly who flew with Astrid and their daughter. The children would trade, hopping from dragon to dragon. Toothless could do nothing but smile.
"They're Dragon Riders alright," he said. "It's in the blood."
"I hope the others have luck with finding the rest of the Berkians," the Light Fury stated.
"I'm sure they will. This is going to be the best day they've had in a while."
Toothless had a goofy grin on his face that amused the queen.
"And what does that look mean?"
"That our family got even bigger." Toothless started going towards Stormfly, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "We haven't raced in a while. I bet that I'm still the fastest."
"If you are, it's just because Astrid hasn't been giving me chicken."
"No excuse. We have some back in the Hidden World."
"Then I guess I'll be winning."
"Only one way to find out."
The friends started flying faster, filled with joy. They had stayed separate for too long. It was time for another change. They did not have to permanently leave the Hidden World, but days like those could be spent with the Berkians. They were family too. Toothless was determined to protect his entire family and that would always include the first individual he viewed as a brother. The dragons' world would be hidden to some and shared with others. This was an official decree from the king.
