Just working together doesn't encompass what living together means for people so different, as to definitely be of different kinds, different species. One thing is for sure; when two cultures met, they meld together, and with that, interesting circumstances may arise in seemingly mundane activities, even while in the background powers governing all the normal people wrestle for their vision to be pursued.
Yet all of them can be unaware of great, real or perceived dangers coming their way.
Toothless and Stormfly exited the lean-to to Hofferson clanhouse in which dragoness and her family resided, Toothless additionally snatched up the drawing alongside the money sack from the floor where it had been abandoned during the brief drama, then showed it to her. The dragoness cocked her head to look at it straight with her eye, then chortled energetically and led the way. "I know who might do it for you! Just… give her some slack; she was in the south two decades ago."
That will be fun.
"Yeah… Let'sh go to thish jewellerh firsht. What do you whant shpecifically?" The Nadder hopped alongside him, her gait far unsteadier, yet faster than his. "I was thinking of some rings on my horns, but since I don't have all that much of this money I can't really afford more than one good one. But, due to the size of my horns, even this one will be far more costly than rings are for humans. But I am not paid any more than other members of the Berk Guard, so I am thinking about either copper or silver. Copper is cheaper, but copper is not that good and would need neat carvings and some gems to look as good as silver, and it would cost more than silver, so I think I will go with silver. It has a really good shine!"
Toothless took it all in stride. Apparently, she wasn't paid any more than others. It was a good thing that food was provided by the tribe; otherwise, that could be a problem… if dragons were unable to hunt, which was never truly the case. Even in the chilliest times of winter, going out to hunt in the forest was feasible; only during devastating winter storms couldn't it be done.
"So, carved silver with gems it is." His friend squawked and leapt to thwack him, but he evaded the mock-blow with a leap of his own. He landed on the roof of the storehouse.
"I told you it will cost too much! How is your hearing so bad when your kind have the best ears of all, rrr… " *fireborns?* "And you really should work on your pronunciation—" Toothless rolled his eyes at the dragoness squawking up at him from the street.
"I hearhd you perhfectly. I meahnt that I will buy it fhor you." She shut up for a change, then a smirk entered her expression. Oho.
"So you want to make up for your absence by buying me shiny stuff."
He nodded and leapt down. "Yesh. You arhe a Nadder."
With a laugh, she led the way again. "I am not going to argue with that! Also, we are near the jeweller, but the seamstress is on the other end of the town, so I will carry you there."
The Night Fury gawped. "You wihll not carry mhe!"
Stormfly suddenly stopped before one of the houses and raked her snout on the doors in rapid succession. "We are here! Okay, let's commission this jewellery."
Toothless blinked several times; the action she just performed stirred some memories within him. There was a… bird. A bird species that pecked… raked the trees with its beak.
There was one he had seen up close, after they tried to take on this one human empire's settlement… It was a mess…
A painful thwack made him leap up, his claws snapping into hooks, his fire building up and his body taking a fighting stance. He blinked. A thoroughly scared human was standing in the doorway. Oops. "I shpaced out?" Stormfly just nodded and then raked her snout on his back just like on the door, chittering all the while. He rolled his eyes, ignoring her antics for now.
"Sorry, I just shpaced out." The human relaxed and nodded.
"Aye, it happens for warriors sometimes. There is not enough space for you inside, but I will open a window for you both."
He did just that, opening a wooden hatch on the side of the house, big enough so they both could stick their heads inside with room to spare. There was indeed little room inside: besides the usual furniture, shelves running along the whole length of the walls sported various pieces of wood and metal carved into a multitude of shapes, some clearly half-finished. The jeweller carried a desk closer to the hatch, so much so that they could reach it with their mouths.
"Okay, Stormfly, here. Show me where on your horn you'd like this ring we talked about." The man took out a drawing of a Nadder head framed in some numbers and placed it on the table. She looked at it for a while, then touched a place one-fourth up the horn's length. The jeweller raised his brow and placed his finger alongside Stormfly's snout.
"At 25 centimetres? Weren't you worried you couldn't pay for one so big in this decade with only Berk Guard income, and only if you didn't spend it on anything else?" Stormfly shook her head and, for a change, replied non-verbally, though that included nipping at Toothless's ear-flap. The Night Fury just nodded, then smacked his companion with said ear.
"Actually besides making it silver I want gems and carving too."
The jeweller's brows went higher up. "You know that will triple the price, yes?"
"Yes though no." Stormfly said, "since carving doesn't cost as much as either silver or gems. So two and a tenth."
He shook his head, while Toothless retreated a step. Was this… haggling was the word.
"No way. Two and a half, and only because you are in the Berk Guard." The dragoness laughed. "Meeting halfway? Nice trick but it would still be overpriced that way! Two and a third."
The man scrunched his brow, then nodded. Toothless cocked his head. "What ish thish price, anyway?"
"One pound of gold." Toothless looked at the sack with money he had carried all this way, found his smart, smart Hiccup's invention – a buckle that could be opened and closed by just pressing on it – and did so. The sight of deep yellow metal welcomed him, and he gingerly took a piece out with his teeth.
The jeweller blinked at it with surprise. "Well, that is one pound of gold." His eyes refocused. "But since she wanted a far more pricey ring, it will be two and a third pounds of gold."
Toothless readily dragged another piece, identical to the previous one, then took a while to find a piece a third of their size. In the end, it meant two smaller round pieces, not one. The human took them, put them on one arm of a flimsy-looking device, while the other sported a few dull-grey items. It showed how much something weighed by balancing it? Ingenious!
Then, the human did a weird human thing and bit the metal. Toothless flinched. Metal was hard; it hurt dragons' teeth; humans' were far flimsier…
To his astonishment, the yellow metal had a depression in it and the human's teeth were in one piece as he smiled widely. "Don't you worry about me; gold is a soft metal. Also, don't you want something, too, friend?"
Toothless's nose twisted. "What did I do to become yourh frhiend?"
"Well…" The human waved at the gold, then shook his head. "What I am saying! Forget about this transaction. You saved my life from that monster on the dragon island, right after I helped put you in chains, no less."
Toothless wracked his brain; he didn't remember any specific humans restraining him, just that they were humans. He'd had more to worry about than their individualistic features.
"I am deeply sorry. I just followed orders. I can make it up for you, however you would like." Toothless shook his head and put it forward, ears slightly rising and pupils widening; the human must have mistaken his expression, so he took a while to reassure him. "No need. My old nesht andh yourh trhibe wash at war. I am thankful to even bhe alive."
"If you say so."
The dragon pulled away and accidentally nudged the sack, which promptly fell on its side and spilled part of its contents. The human's eyes bulged out. Toothless spared him a glance, then went to put everything back in its place and pressed on the buckle until he heard a click.
"So much gold… Your spoils from the raid must have been truly mighty."
Toothless blinked. "Thish ish sho much? It sheemsh... little." The sack's weight was near-imperceptible for him.
The jeweller laughed hysterically. "Little? This is more than everything I have is worth several times. Including this whole house, every piece of food, cloth and firewood, and even the bride price of all of my daughters!"
Toothless's pupils narrowed dangerously. "What ish bride price?"
The human seemed to shake off his hysteria and responded levelly. "Oh, you know, proving that you can financially support a bride by giving her parents money."
The dragon blinked in confusion. "Wouldhn't giving it to the brhide work bhetterh?"
The human shuffled…actually, Toothless didn't even know his name. "Maybe," the human said, "but everyone in the house helps around, and they leave when they get married, get their own house, so that helps parents deal with that, too."
It was… fair, Toothless guessed. The fewer dragons there were, the less fish was needed to support them, so it was irrelevant. But humans needed more things to support themselves, some of which required support of their own.
"What ish yourh nhame?"
"Adam. Adam Silverfinger, Toothless." The dragon nodded, took the drawing as well as the sack of money – enough money to have more than whole human families combined, that wasn't even half of what he had – and took exactly one step out of view from the house before being unceremoniously snatched up.
He yelped but managed to catch the items before they fell too far from his agape jaws. He glared up at the Nadder frantically beating her wings and panting to keep both their weights in the air. It was a losing contest, one that she gave up when they neared the main square, dropping him down and then promptly falling on her side.
There were a few people milling around with the worst of winter behind them, whom he paid no mind to other than acknowledging they existed, and sprung towards his friend. "Storhmfly! What werhe you thinking!" he berated. She was fine, so she could take some talking-to. "Rheally, thish wash completely unnecesshary. Andh I rheally, rheally don't like bheing carried like that."
She cringed and apologised with a whine. "I am very sorry, friend, I didn't mean to humiliate you." That was really contrite for her, so he was certain he actually got through. Toothless braced his side against hers and helped her get up. She stumbled two steps but shook her body and collected herself swiftly.
"Okay let's go to the seamstress why do you want it anyway?"
Toothless shrugged. "I don't know how wearhing clothesh feelsh like, sho I wihll trhy it out."
She rolled her eyes. "Your kind was always too inquisitive for its own good. Okay, but why this specifically? I haven't seen any humans wearing this at all."
Toothless smiled with unsheathed teeth and more than a little bit of malice. "It makesh Hiccup nervhoush."
They both laughed. After a few seconds, they calmed down enough to resume their walk. Eventually, Stormfly stopped across the street and trilled excitedly. "Covering yourself will be a shame, though! You are pretty! If you were a Nadder, I would have taken you as a mate."
Toothless smirked. "I think the correcht worhd ish handshome."
"No, it is pretty!" insisted the dragoness.
He rolled his eyes again. "Rhegarhdlessh of how you wish to call attrhactivenessh, if you think I am attrhactive, then why not? We can't have hatchlingsh anyway."
He flexed his tail to add to his argument. Stormfly stopped, looked around, pointed herself towards one door, and then seemed to be intensely brainstorming, and, to his chagrin, found a successful reply.
"Because I think you would look attractive as a Nadder. You aren't looking like that to me now, so no. Besides, do you feel like I am being attractive to you?"
Toothless huffed. Desire to try out something new, trampled by logic. "No."
She rolled her eyes good-naturedly and then, with a big, silly grin, raked her snout on the door. He heard shuffling, then steps, and finally the doors were pried open.
"Mmm, Stormfly? Did you reconsider my offer?" The woman that looked upon the dragoness was lithe, like Hiccup, except visibly adult from how curved her body was. Her skin had a darker, tan shade, eyes as well – dark brown – and, as much as Toothless wasn't an expert, her clothes looked very neat.
"Noope, but I brought a friend that wants clothes for himself. He is a dragon, too." The seamstress swerved her head until she found him, then her skin shade became lighter. This was usually a bad thing for humans; it meant they were sick. "Are you okay? You look ill."
She blinked at him, closed her eyes, took a few deep, shaky breaths, and then looked at him again, visibly strained.
He knew it wasn't going to be easy, but frankly, he would have even preferred the searing hate Fishvoice showed at first, before it turned into contempt, rather than this dread… this… trauma. He could place reason against this hate, explain the whys and wherefores, but this? It made his insides twist painfully and be faced with the unquestionable fact of just how wrong those actions were.
She breathed deeply once again and spoke. "Okay, you want clothes? Come inside." Toothless slithered through the doorway easily. Stormfly had less luck and needed to retreat with an irritated squawk; her taller stature made it far harder, if not impossible, to get into places designed for humans, unlike his more lean, elastic, sleek body.
"So, what kind of clothes… would you… like?" The question was awkward, but nothing less could be expected. He just showed her the drawing. She blinked passively several times before her eyes refocused and, quickly afterwards, nearly bulged out. "Is this a maid dress?"
He put it down and replied with a shrug. "If you shay sho, I honeshtly don't know what it ish, jusht that I like itsh aeshthetic. It ish complex, bhut with a pattern, andh besidhesh, I am quite intereshthed how clothesh wouldh feel like on me, too."
She looked at him, then at the drawing, alternating this way several times, her bewilderment seeping away with each look and her lips tightening in focus. She started shaking her head and muttering some words under her nose, words detached from all context and seeming very specialised besides.
"Ish shomething wrong? Ish it within what do you offer?" She was shaking her head after all; this gesture meant denial for humans, that much he was certain.
Toothless's expectations, however, were contradicted as she smiled widely. Maybe he should have no expectations when they concerned humans, with their illogical and unpredictable behaviour.
"Is it within what your friendly neighbourhood seamstress offers? No." Her smile turned eager-crazy, a kind he had seen exclusively on Hiccup, and that appearance made him feel just a little uneasy. "But it, most definitely, is within what the master seamstress of the Solarian Empire, Vivia Alexander, who spent her career creating lavish clothes for the rich and powerful from before the Blitz, can and will do!" Her smile got just a little bit wicked. "After all, how could I pass up the chance to be the first person ever to dress up a dragon?"
Okay. This human was crazy. Sadly, he found his tongue working of its own accord as his mind scrambled to make a coherent response. "You wouldn't bhe the firhsht. Hiccup made me thish harhnessh andh shaddle."
Now she looked at him as if he personally affronted her. "Harness? Saddle? Bah! This cannot be called dressing! It is what is put on mounts and beasts of burden!" Her expression froze, then turned apologetic and, as he realised with a painful sting in his insides, fearful. "I am sorry! I didn't mean to offend! You dragons wear it because of its uses! I didn't mean that you are just beasts to be used—"
Toothless made a conscious effort to widen his pupils and compose his frills and ear-flaps into the most innocently cheerful look he could muster. "Of courhse not! I whouldh neverh hadh thought that!"
She nodded, breathing quickly for a while, before this light yet again set itself into her eyes. But, he realised, it was just a tad bit unnatural and shallow. Did she try to use this excitement to shield herself from… everything he made her recall…?
"And that is exactly the reason why you won't be wearing that." The seamstress waved the drawing before his eyes. He squinted. It was illogical. It required justification. "Why? It can't bhe done? Orh do you mean it ish in shome whay degrhading? What ish a 'maid' in thish cashe?"
Vivia was taken aback by the avalanche of questions. "Well, a maid is… someone that takes care of someone else's house, usually someone rich." At his incredulous gaze, she expanded upon it. "Oh, you know, cleaning floors, furniture, washing clothes, making up the beds, cooking meals, bringing whatever is needed, sometimes assisting with dressing up. The like."
Toothless had none of that. "I cleaned floorhsh, furhniturhe andh broughht othersh what they ashked forh. I hadh yet to trhy doing shome of the otherh of thoshe thingsh, bhut all of them sheem prhetty norhmall. Sho why shouldn't I wearh a drhessh that people that do that forh a living do?"
She shook her head several times in a row. "First of all, maids are women."
The inevitable inquiry came in an instant. "Why?"
Needless to say, 'It is just how it is' didn't even register as any form of argument in Toothless's mind.
"Besides that," she went on, "you are of high standing; you can't wear a maid dress!"
The Night Fury sighed with exasperation. "Sho bheing of 'high shtanding' meansh I can't do thingsh that I whant? No. I whant thish. If you don't whant to make it, then fine, bhut thish all you jusht shaid ish jusht... nonshenshe." He said the last word more firmly. "I wihll wearh what I whant to, andh I even wihll bhe a maid if I whant to, too."
The human was a bit bewildered, but managed to yet again regain her composure."Well, I can make it then, or a butler suit, though the maid one wouldn't be exactly comfortable, and I would need to use a wooden frame to make the skirt even look like a skirt in a quadrupedal configuration. What size should I give it, anyway, to not have it drag through the ground? Mmm, maybe I should make a sort of cape with a similar pattern, but it wouldn't have quite the same look. Plus, what to do with the wings and tail? Just bundle them up? I reckon it wouldn't work well in flight whatsoever…"
Toothless gawped. "Rhestrrain my wingsh? No! I need to bhe able to fly."
She rolled her eyes. "And how would I achieve that? I don't even know how to make it reasonably comfortable while walking yet, never mind running. Flying? Forget about it. It will take a fair amount of time and experimentation before I can even consider how to make it work in flight, and not with this dress, either. It is far too complex for that. There is nothing to draw upon for me here; I have to build all the principles and techniques from the ground up!"
The human snatched a strap with regularly placed markings up, then blatantly ignored the existence of his personal space and started sticking it to him. He barked and stepped away, and her immediate response was to grab him by the frill and haul him back into position. "Don't move! It will be hard enough even with proper measurements. I think we will start with a shirt; it should be simple enough. For boots, I will need to talk to my husband. When we have this design ironed out, I can move onto pants—no, wait, some underwear first!"
"What? No! I have no need forh that!" Still, even as he complained, he stood dutifully, for some indiscernible reason letting the overeager human do… whatever she was doing. Maybe this was because the fright and pain had left her entirely, devotion to her craft becoming a purpose within itself instead of protection.
The full afternoon went and passed before he was let out of the maniacal female's clutches, though not for long, as he agreed to return tomorrow for her husband to think about boots and the day after that to get the first version of the shirt on him and get it 'properly tailored', whatever that meant. Stormfly seemed to disappear sometime during the expansive (and sometimes invasive) measuring and theorising, and he felt a pang of guilt for ignoring her again. Though as much as he wished to make this up for her, he just knew that he would regret her teasing more than leaving it at that.
As if by clockwork, the dragon recalled the near-revelation that came after the embarrassing dialogue. He put a stop to it for a while, deigning instead to observe the piece of cliff that was melted through. Likely the last place the thrall collar existed, considering that there was exactly one person able to do it. A body-length of rock was melted smoothly, in the passage of one projectile, and it didn't seem as if it offered any resistance whatsoever, since the hole was straight, and therefore, the trajectory unaffected. Truly cataclysmic power, one that could, perhaps, even penetrate Starborn protection reliably and outright, instead of the insane and stupid-crazy stunt he pulled off with Hiccup.
Toothless's memory went up again when he leapt to his and Hiccup's room. He paid only enough mind before triggering it to greet his excitedly drawing friend and lay down on his stone plate, recently adorned with an elevated metal rim after sparks from his fire strayed and very nearly ignited the house.
It was a good strike, the Night Fury mused happily from the seemingly unstable but surprisingly sturdy pile of rocks in the ocean.
The human town was as good as gone, broken beyond repair, and the humans themselves – deprived of all of the structure their lives relied upon, those that survived the initial strike anyway – were vegetating in the woods, as the boats were sunk swiftly in the night. They didn't follow them. That would be an unnecessary risk. Proles Tonitrua nevertheless considered setting the forest aflame. It wasn't strictly necessary; without physical structures, social ones will fail, too, and it will be a good long time before survivors will manage to do anything whatsoever besides survival, assuming they would even survive, which was questionable. But it wouldn't hurt. It wasn't like there was a lack of liveable space in the world. One island being turned uninhabitable would be pretty meaningless. Toni smirked. Nothing could stop them now.
It was one of a few human groups they had destroyed around here. These seemed not to be organised into one country, but each settlement was separate. It meant that each of these settlements was protected with the full power of its inhabitants, which could be a problem. Except night cloaked their forms as well as ever, and humans could only shoot haplessly into the darkness, while they themselves were clear targets. And that was after the first salvo crippled their defences. If he was right about the speed of their boats, then none even knew they were coming, since there shouldn't be enough time for any of those to reach others, and they sank all those before they even left the ports. Still, there may have been some departed and near the horizon they overlooked, or maybe hidden in some nooks and crannies of the stony coast. Unlikely, but possible. And irrelevant. They will be done with this cluster of humanity before any could be alerted to their presence. He giggled giddily. So flawless plan!
There was a flutter of wings behind him. He didn't turn, just continued to stare at the horizon. "Did something happen? You spotted some ship we overlooked before? In any case, there are five of us free to take care of it."
A response didn't come for a few seconds. "Is everything alright?"
He turned, but before the image even solidified, something was hurriedly thrown over his head, which he shook in surprise, and realised just how terrible a waste of time it was when a paw swept his forelimbs aside and another pinned his back to the rock.
"D-dam?!" It was the very first thought he had when someone tried to restrain him. He didn't want it to be like that, but his assumption was, regretfully, proven correct by a gentle purr, laden with anxiousness and fear.
"No, Dam, don't do that, please!" A grey body arrayed itself around him swiftly and decisively. He didn't even try to fight, only shut his eyes and curled around himself as much as he was allowed to by the firm grip.
How foolish he was to think that his command over the Thirteen Wing changed anything. Things tightened around his head and neck, and he absently registered a metallic clicking. Then he felt his paws being lifted and fitted through something. His heart somehow fell even more. She was trapping him in this thing? Despair made him whine quietly, but he swiftly cut the sound off. It was of no use.
"Hey, everything will be okay. You won't have to do anything. I will take care of everything for you. Make you warm, comfortable… safe."
He just… didn't feel. His mind was numb, working only on facts. The fate he would have to endure was clear, but he couldn't find even despair in himself. The numb thought that there were far worse things than being fussed over for a large part of his life came and went without inducing any reaction whatsoever.
Suddenly, he was startled to awareness by an impossibly loud popping sound. But instead of looking at its source, his eyes diverted towards a sphere of utter and complete blackness, a little wider than a grown Nocta Furae's wingspan, hovering slightly above seastack. The sphere disappeared in less than any eye-blink with another popping sound, depositing a seething dwarf dragon in its center. In the very instant afterwards, he felt a tug on his half-fastened harness, strong enough to make him take a few steps sideways, nearly stumbling, and then lift his abdomen. The chain linking him and his dam was taut, and she sent him a look that brokered no disagreement. He sighed through the muzzle and spread his wings. There was no use in resisting. Being amenable will make it more tolerable.
A streak of light blinked through his vision and struck the chain; heat and pressure pushed him backwards; his dam shrieked as she fell through the air when their link was destroyed. A small Night Fury, easily mistaken for a Fireling if not for the grim expression, hunched aggressively in the centre of the rock.
"Back off! I won't stand you treating him like that!" The voice sounded juvenile, but there was a true edge to it, crafted by experience. It was in moments like this that he realised the true age of his little friend. Even back when he was a fireling, this little guy was already an adult for a while.
Mater Fulgur whined. "I can't lose yet another of my offsp—" A plasma bolt hit her directly in the chest before she could finish the sentence. She was thrown back but quickly landed on the stone, her scales ripped and blistered, and hissed at the smaller dragon. It failed to impress him whatsoever.
"Stop with those excuses and manipulation. I knew it was bad, but not that bad. You can't deprive your own son of freedom! Especially not just for the sake of your past experiences! Get lost or WE will make you!"
Proles Tonitrua took a look away from the scene and at his wing before, frozen in hesitance but now moving, launching into the air, either to glide to the rock or circle overhead. His dam looked around anxiously.
"Don't you remember what I did for all of you? Don't you remember who is the sole reason we are no longer prey, but the hunter? Where is your gratitude! Leave me alone." She made to go around the dwarf Gifted, but reared back when the little dragon bit where her throat had been a moment before with clear, unbridled anger, then retreated all the way to the edge of the rock when three from his wing landed. Lux Plaga used the opportunity to turn to him and proceed to disassemble the half-secured harness as well as the collar and muzzle. Proles Tonitrua leaned into this with a relieved whimper and a grateful purr.
He tuned out his dam's rambling, but snapped back to attention as he heard a shot build-up. He shook the muzzle the rest of the way from his head and spoke.
"Dam, stop it. Or do you want to be knocked out?" The levelness of his voice surprised even him, but he took this gladly.
She bristled. "I won't give up! I will get you and you will be – safe. I won't lose you!"
He made a prolonged, sad sigh. "Oh, Dam…" then suddenly snapped his head towards the three on the rock. "Hold her down."
They were surprised, but so was she, and soon she ended up pinned to the stone, looking at him with frantic and begging eyes. But he would not relent. Because he knew what she would do to him if he did, and as much as she was his dam, that simply wasn't something he could endure, no matter how much she actually needed it.
"If that is the case, then there is no other way than to keep you under guard. But I don't want to do that. If you come near me again, I will have you put in what you forced me into and assign a guard until we are back to the rest of the Blitz, but now you may leave. Understood?"
She looked at him pleadingly, but he didn't waver, gathering all the determination he could get his paws on, and she slumped, averting her gaze. "Yes." He looked at her intently, cringing but determined, and with a final sigh, she leapt off his rock and soared to the edge of this sea-rocks field. So she was going to tag along. At least he didn't have to keep her muzzled and leashed like some mindless animal. That would be a sorry sight.
Toothless shook his head. This was a sad thing to remember, but at least… Wait… If she was there…
The Night Fury shook with dread; all-permeating fear pinned him in place, on this rock-shelf of a scary, but less-scary-than-outside, nest. His thoughts were sliced into pieces by – what again? Never mind, he needed to get rest, but this place was so exposed! He was too scared! He shook his head when his eyelids fell. Too dangerous. Too tired…
A dark shape landed near him. He bristled, but as scared as it looked, it wasn't threatening. It… purred. He hesitated, and it leapt at him frantically. He cried out in fear, but felt no wounds as the second dragon reached him. It wasn't an attack, he realised; it was a… hug. A dark wing was placed over his back, holding him tightly, and he found his paws relaxing and his body slumping down in exhaustion. The smell was relaxing. The smell of this one. Like him – too long a thought, sliced, as all the other strings of reasoning were, and leaving him momentarily disoriented, before he relaxed into the attention, affectionate purring and gentle licks lulling him to sleep as she took guard…
…As she did a lot, as she always cared for him thoroughly, and how he let her, how it was hard to get her to let him return the favour, but how he still did it. They were each other's only solace in this terrible, terrible place.
Dam and son.
Toothless's eyes were wide, his breathing hastened, but then slowed down. In the end, they sorted it out, made their relationship somewhat mutual, only because of the circumstances and the impossibility for her to freak out over possible dangers, because none were allowed thoughts complex enough for that.
Then it hastened again as realisation hit him. She wasn't here. She wasn't there. She was there when he was shot down, but did she see what happened? If she did, she would investigate, though it isn't like she would be given a choice when it was time to return to the nest.
She was out there. His mother. Mother of Lightning. The one that created the Blitz.
…Surely thinking her prized son dead at the hands of some of the human tribes in the area. The area now free of the Starborn that enthralled the Thirteen Wing commander, and that the overprotective mother followed him into, heedless of the fate awaiting her there, only caring for her son. The son that she now surely thought dead.
"On Blackstars, nononononononono!"