Civilisations, just like buildings, need to be built. But unlike buildings they are made from people. Some are created from killers and slaves, others from companions and allies.

Characteristic screeching and rapid pawsteps rushing outside roused Toothless from sleep. He growled, sorely tempted to ignore it just this once, but a human battlecry sounded off and before he knew it, he was leaping from the big opening in the roof and then rushing through the village towards the sound's source.

It was just a few moments until he arrived in a small alleyway. A human, Adam Silverfinger, stood with his back to his house, flanked on one side by a barrel and brandishing his shield and sword towards all else. A Speed Stinger snarled from a few steps away, stark crimson, but with a pretty shallow wound on her flank.

They both looked to him when he approached. "What happened?" Toothless asked the human and rapidly shot the same sentence to the dragoness in dragonspeak.

The jeweller eased his stance but kept his weapon out still, his face red and teeth bared. "I was just walking home from the butcher's, when this one tried to steal the meat."

And indeed, the bag from which emanated the smell of meat lay just behind the human, tucked away safely. Toothless looked at the Speed Stinger, wondering why she hadn't given her answer yet, only to see her cowering before him. He sighed. *I won't hurt you, I told you this many times already and never broke my word. Just tell me what happened.*

She looked up uneasily, her body still all but screaming submission. *I wanted this food, I fought for it.*

Would you like someone to take your food away?* At those words she immediately cowered back down. Toothless bit back an annoyed growl. *It's not a threat, I am asking a question.*

A few seconds of silence passed before she replied. *...No.*

Toothless nodded. *So why would you take it from someone else, when you don't want it to be taken from you?*

The Speed Stinger — the Queen's elder daughter, he noted just now — tilted her head, at last thinking about it instead of submitting to the Night Fury. It took her long enough, Toothless internally grumbled.

You mean... don't do to someone what you do not want to happen to you?*

Toothless nodded, elated at the painstaking progress, only to cringe when she continued.

But... for that to work, everyone would need to do it. That is impossible.*

No, it is not. Humans follow it mostly, as do the dragons living with them. Even if it works only partially, that is already better.* Seeing that he overcompensated with the explanation, he sighed and told it in a more contrite way. *If many people adhere to it, then taking something from someone stops becoming a question of strength, but a question of reason.*

Toothless steeled himself. *And there never can be a sound reason for that.*

She nodded slowly, mulling it over and walking away.

Silverfinger sheathed his weapon and put his shield on his back, but before Toothless could leave he spoke as well. "You should punish them for it. It just keeps happening."

The Night Fury looked at him with as much stubbornness as any Viking. "No. I will not coerce anyone." Seeing a reply bubbling up beneath Adam's face and with adrenaline catching up to grossly insufficient sleep, Toothless added. "Also, if I punish them they will just do it when they think I won't see it. Only seeing the reasons behind it can really result in them changing for the better."

At least this answer seemed to satisfy the human, somewhat. "See you in the hall at midday. We should be done with the carvings in under a week."

Toothless walked back to the clanhouse at a much slower pace through the sleeping village, cringing at the memory of his drunk stunt in the great hall, mumbling greetings to patrols he passed along the way, then scrambling to get up in again through the big window, closed the shutter and was about to sag back down onto his stone slab... only to see Hiccup scribbling something on his desk.

When Speed Stingers started causing trouble, which was from day one really, Toothless was forced to allow Hiccup to sleep on the bed instead of in his embrace. None of them was enthusiastic about this change.

"Hi bud. Midnight problems again?"

The dragon sent him a long-suffering glance. "Yesh. Why won't they jusht... understeandsh?"

Hiccup stood up and embraced Toothless's head, then led him to the stone slab. None of them could care about anything besides curling up together and falling asleep.

That is, until the smell of fried fish roused the dragon rapidly enough to wake his human friend as well.

She was doing it. Again.

"We need to tell our allies about our peace with dragons," said Stoick as all four Haddocks sat at the table for breakfast.

"Surhe, I need to strhetch my wings on longerh flight anyway," Toothless remarked with no care in the world, as if they talked about a midday stroll, and dug into his still warm after frying fish, purring as he ate. Pebble, who slunk a bit back when Stoick threw the topic out, relaxed and smiled upon seeing this.

Hiccup leaned back in his chair, rubbing his chin. "When? And to whom first?"

"I need to get some things in order first. We can head out at noon tomorrow. I will go to the Meatheads, you and Astrid to the Bog Burglars, each of us with a few Berk Guard warriors of course."

Toothless huffed. "Then I suppose I will go get the saddle forh Hiccup to check. We haven't flown such a distance in a while now."

"No," Stoick said firmly. Seeing Toothless's questioning expression, he explained. "You have those Speed Stingers to take care of."

"They won't kill each otherh in a day," Toothless paused, squinting. "Prhobably." He shook his head. "Besides, they arhe not my hatchlings. I don't need to babysit them."

"If only it was that easy. Between rulers, people can be more irresponsible than you can imagine," said Stoick tiredly.

The Night Fury sent him an unamused glance. "Firhst off, I'm not theirh rulerh. Leaderh, at most and only because they want to listen to me, howeverh prhimitive theirh rheason; I don't and I won't make them do anything."

Hiccup frowned. "It's not about the Speed Stingers is it Dad?"

Stoick cracked a smile and looked at Hiccup warmly. "Perceptive as always, my son." Then his expression turned grim. "I suppose that I shouldn't have even tried. You are a Night Fury, Toothless. Most of the people on the archipelago, in any tribe, are refugees from Blitz."

Toothless cocked his head to the left. "They won't have seen a Night Fury clearly." Then he cocked it to the right. "But they likely saw silhouettes."

Hiccup drummed his fingers on the table, cringing. "We can't and we shouldn't keep Toothless tucked away just because he is inconvenient." He glanced at Pebble. "Neither should we hide other Night Furies that end up with us."

Stoick raised an eyebrow. "You are making assumptions, son." It wasn't a smile on his face, but it wasn't a frown either. "They will come to know about Toothless. They will question from where do we have all the info on the Blitz, after all. It's just a bad idea for when we present dragons as equals; they may think it's a ploy by, well, Blitz."

Toothless nodded. Hiccup cringed but nodded as well. Pebble suddenly perked up despite not paying attention before.

"Y-yo msh tht... Rrrr... Ahay?"

"Yes, we're going away for a while, if that's what you are asking," replied Hiccup and Pebble deflated.

Toothless's ears raised and he asked. "Why are you afraid?"

Her eyes widened. *Right, you will be here.*

Toothless's nose twisted and his ears had gone down. "Yes, I suppose I will stay, but why were you afraid of staying without us?"

I would be alone.* Toothless looked at her incredulously. "There are a lot of people around. You won't be alone."

Hiccup leaned in his chair and patted Toothless on the shoulder, his green eye turned back to meet him. "She doesn't feel she belongs outside of our clan."

Toothless blinked, then licked Pebble under her ear-flap. She leapt up with a squeak, upturning a chair to her side and jostling the entire table, a few unfinished fish falling down. She gathered herself and stared at Toothless wide-eyed, while Hiccup exclaimed his surprise and Stoick grunted, steadying the table.

"Don't be childish; you belong in this tribe and you can kick anyone claiming otherwise." Then he realised he rather shouldn't have done this in this manner. "I wronged you, cuff me!"

She looked at him for a long few seconds, then hesitantly waved her paw and patted him on the nose. Toothless instantly fell onto his side and curled up submissively. "Sorrhy! Please fhorgive me!"

Pebble blinked several times, then stuttered. *I f-forgive you.* Toothless immediately sprung up and ate some fish from the floor as if nothing had happened.

Hiccup smiled. Stoick did too, though it was hardly visible through his beard. Hiccup's father turned and leaned towards his son, smiling broadly enough for his impressive beard not to conceal it. "So, you are going to get some experience on Chief duties. Negotiating with other tribes is a really important thing. Why do you think I go to the Meatheads instead of with you?"

Hiccup lowered his gaze and fidgeted with a spoon. "Because you don't want them to think you prioritise either tribe, bu-"

"Good! Diplomacy contains a lot of such posturing, so make sure to think about it. Of course no one will declare war just because you made a minor mistake, so don't be too hard on yourself for that; we are Vikings after all. Being too diplomatic may make you seem weak-willed, but I'm sure-"

"Dad, I don't want to be a chief," Hiccup interrupted.

Silence descended in the room, Toothless though, simply walked up to him and casually asked. ''Then what are you planning on?''

Hiccup chuckled. Stoick froze. Toothless looked between them questioningly.

"It's just that you don't even consider it a problem," Hiccup said. "That if I want to do something, it's not even a question if I can.''

Toothless snorted. ''You are free, no one has the right to force you to do or not do anything.''

Stoick's arguments were struck down by those few words as surely and completely as Berk's defences upon facing this very dragon. He didn't even try to argue. He could not argue with that in conscience, his arguments turning to dust in his mouth. He had no doubt that Hiccup would make a great Chief with proper training, but while forcing him into it would be good for the tribe, it wouldn't be good for him, and Stoick had put his duties over his son for far too long.

The Chief simply sighed, defeated before fighting even began. ''I will have to find someone else then.''

Toothless immediately shook his head. Pebble slunk back.

Stoick rubbed his forehead. ''Why, exactly?''

Hiccup sighed, then smiled. ''If I was chief, then…I wouldn't have time for Toothless.''

Stoick nodded. There was no way to deny that. Chiefdom took immense time. People always wanted him to be available, and they should, because how could he deny fulfilling the duty, the promise, that he himself had vowed to uphold?

He hadn't expected what came later though. ''Besides, Toothless doesn't have much time.''

Stoick's blood ran cold and before he knew it, he was standing at the dragon's side, his eyes flicking this way and that, scanning his body for anything out of order, restraining himself from manhandling the dragon to check him up more thoroughly; it wasn't said as if it was urgent, but more of an inevitability.

So instead the Chief asked firmly. ''What is it?''

''Blackheart," Toothless said "A... thing all Night Furies have, that detonates and kills us at some point. It shouldn't now, but in the next twenty years, when I will reach fifty, it will become a concern. Orh tomorrow I will wake up only to feel it destabilise, you never know, though the chances for that are very low.''

Stoick cringed, then smiled wryly. ''Fifty years isn't half bad.'' Then his face blanched and he looked at Hiccup.

The teenager was smiling sadly. ''Hey, at least I'll get to spend five more years with him than I've been alive. It has to count for something.'' He shook his head. ''Besides, it is random. He may well outlive me.''

But there was little faith in those words.

Pebble's whimper, as quiet as it was, drew attention to her shocked form. *So... soon.*

Toothless swiftly moved to her side and gave her a few tender licks and a rumbling purr. She calmed down and asked a question, her voice tight. *How do Night Furies deal with it?*

Toothless shrugged, his wings bobbing up and down. ''By getting the most we can out of it. Living to the fullest, not restraining ourselves, figuratively, pursuing our dreams with wild abandon, so when it comes, we know that we did everything we could, everything we wanted to.'' He smirked. ''We end up with fuller lives this way than hundreds of years old dragons, despite having maybe a tenth of the time they do.''

Pebble cocked her head to the side, determination welling up behind her eyes, and she nodded firmly. ''I wihh dh my bhet thn.''

Toothless nodded too. ''And that's all that matters.''

''I didn't think you were interested in those things. Aurora Dominii offered it to you before but you declined,'' said Dominus Artifex, annoyed and slightly disappointed at Lumina Lux's request. His opinion on how much priority 'those things' should get was pretty low.

''Not in this way, no, but my son can't speak, so I would like to inhibit my speech on occasion as well.''

Dominus Artifex's expression immediately shifted to understanding.

''For this! Okay, I will get you one in no time at all.'' He shuffled through mismatched bags attached to a crude harness, then paused for a second and went to the other side of the harness. ''Actually, I will give you better stuff, we have a lot of those reinforced bridles, but it is also what your son suffered through.'' Dominus Artifex nodded at the sight of the desired item in the chaos, then turned back to Lumina Lux, scooping it up in his paw.

''And besides, you led us well; sixty-four new recruits to our cause and a particularly crafty human group crippled, with only few casualties.''

The item was made out of discarded leather scraps stitched together and intersected with a metal pole, going through it horizontally and barely sticking out of it. To the mentioned pole's both ends, a sturdy leather strap with a buckle was attached, salvaged from a horse saddle after one of the skirmishes with human forces trying to supply the cities. They never stood a chance.

Regardless, Lumina Lux appraised the item and took it. ''Thank you, Dominus Artifex.'' He cocked his head, then turned it horizontally and spoke. ''I will give you some humans, it's long past the time we should make use of them.''

Dominus Artifex grumbled. ''Trying shouldn't hurt, still, I think that making ourselves dependent on what we want to destroy is the wrong course of action.''

Lumina Lux chortled with annoyance. ''Or we can turn some of them into our tools instead of destroying them all. What is the point in their destruction anyways, after they cease to be a danger?''

Dominus Artifex opened then closed his mouth. Then he spoke. ''That is a good point, but we would need to keep really little for them not to pose a danger.''

''Which would already suffice to help a lot, besides, if we make sure they know nothing but obedience, we could keep as many as we want without an issue. But let's start small. I will give you three of them, let's see how this works out.''

And indeed, soon he returned with three humans walking before him stiffly, his plasma blast primed at them. With no weapons, humans were helpless before him indeed. But humans were crafty, and they could scrounge something up if left to their own devices.

It means they would require supervision, Nocta Furae guarding them instead of doing something else. If they increased efficiency enough it could be worth it, but still… keeping humans around seemed wrong.

"Bipeds, you will do what I say, unless you prefer to die." Talking to those things was weird, really weird.

They just blinked without understanding. Right, humans have many tongues—

Lumina Lux knocked them all three over with his tail immediately and calmly replied to the questions just forming in Dominus Artifex's head. "They don't need to understand why they are punished, not all the time, anyway; they just need to fear it."

Artifex acknowledged the explanation. "Okay, you know their behaviours better." This time, he swept up a harness with a re-wired pedal, pointed at it, and then threw an unmodified one at them. He glared, but they still had no idea. Then he started; of course not all humans would know how to make things!

So he settled down with another unmodified harness and started rewiring it, making sure that the humans saw what he was doing. Under Lumina Lux's glare, they paid attention, one even started testing the mechanism with his nimble, jealousy-inducing paws.

Then one on the side made a strange expression and noise, and a white scaleless paw came down on its chest hard, knocking the breath out of it and pinning it down, then a claw from the second one ended in its mouth, only to exit a second later with a bloodied tongue, while the human was shaking and trying to scream despite no air in its lungs.

"It was amused by how clumsy our claws are."

Artifex glared at the two undamaged humans, which immediately hung their heads down and started fidgeting with the harness uncertainly. Lumina Lux called out for a nearby Nocta Furae and asked her to take the damaged human away.

They were clearly inexperienced and he needed to repair some mistakes of theirs, after they were kicked for it of course, but by the time morning came around, there were twice as many re-wired harnesses. While still but a few, it was bound to increase as humans learned, and as more of them worked on it.

"I must say, this efficiency you talked about makes an impression," Artifex felt the need to admit, his eyes lighting up with all the new possibilities.

"I am glad to hear that. Now, I need to take care of those." Lumina Lux waved at the humans, who flinched at the movement of the very same limb that delivered heavy bruises.

"After all, where there is a stick, there needs to be a carrot."

Bowen huddled near a tiny campfire with a woman whose name he couldn't recall in silence. Night Furies couldn't be bothered with anything more than throwing a few pieces of wood together and lighting them up. It was still better than what others got, shivering in the cold summer night. They got more food too; a whole elk leg, if he recognised the meat right. Thankfully he knew how to prepare it for eating.

He also knew what Albino was doing. He knew what fate befell them all.

Slavery.

His insides churned at the thought. He, a slave? It just... wasn't meant to be. He never liked it overall, but now with him becoming one, he shivered with sheer wrongness of it as much as because of the fear of the creatures all around.

He looked at the stick he fried a piece of meat on. Then sighed. Yeah, like a pointed stick, a proper spear, sword, hatchet or even crossbow would do him any good against things that can shatter whole buildings in one strike.

It was... hopeless. What could they do, so outnumbered, even if they were armed? There were more Night Furies around than humans, ten times more of them in fact. Taking a dragon one on one was already a great feat, and usually a whole combat team was needed for that. Being outnumbered by them? It would be suicide.

No... there was no chance here and now.

Maybe later, he tried to be optimistic, but he felt the insincerity of it very clearly.

Was it to be his life now and until he grew old and useless to his... masters? He wondered, as the wind howled and the fire sparked weakly against it.

Scab yawned, for just a moment truly content. But swiftly he felt wrongness in his maw, a gaping void where his tongue should be.

A thrumming purr sounded from his sire nearby, blinking his eyes open, and having them assaulted by bright light, he realised that he'd slept through the night. That was so long... but he could not bring himself to care.

His stirring, though, roused his sire. A crimson eye opened when Scab wasn't looking and Moonlight observed him attentively.

Scab wanted to reassure him, to tell him everything was alright, that he should go back to sleep, but even as those words were planned, they failed to be created. What came instead was a pitiful whine, just as he, again, remembered what had happened to him. Moonlight immediately hugged him and purred more loudly.

It was paradoxically because of his newfound freedom, Scab supposed. Before, no one could speak with those cruel bridles forced onto them, it wasn't anything unusual that he couldn't speak. Now though...

He was jolted out of his thoughts by Moonlight's movement. Scab's sire leaned towards the bags fastened around his hips, put something on his head and returned to his son's field of vision.

There was a... thick stick in his mouth? And straps coming out from it and joined behind his head. What was it for?

His sire embraced him again, hugging his torso with his partially unfurled wing and nuzzling him on the back of the head. Scab fidgeted gleefully as his ear flaps and frills were nuzzled. It always felt very nice, if embarrassing, but right now he couldn't care less for the latter, even when in plain sight.

Well, mostly. There was a piece of canvas hanging between the trees they rested near, forming a makeshift but working roof for about five Night Furies. Scab's eyes idly wandered over it, not having paid attention to it when it was set up, only to realise with a start that it was a human Alpha nest. It was stretched out in a shape it clearly wasn't meant to be in, bearing a few ragged holes and slashes on the edges, likely from dragons handling it not carefully enough.

A tentative smirk wormed its way onto his face and a chuckle sounded off. A symbol of authority stripped of all of its power and reduced to nothing more than a makeshift shelter, barely worth any consideration.

After a few more moments he looked around again, satisfaction slowly seeping away as he thought on what to do. His father silently watched over him as he did so, so it was only a matter of time until his attention was again gripped by the item on his head. Scab's body began trying to form words, an attempt he squashed quickly and did his best to distract himself from it by pointing at the ball and the strap and tilting his head to the side.

An unintelligible mumble was his entire answer, except it was delivered with the intent of speech...

Scab startled and reached for the strap, but Moonlight simply backed away and shook his head slightly. His father's gaze was very pointed, yet gentle.

Scab sagged a little in defeat, though he couldn't hide his gratitude. He remembered just how gravely aggravated his dad was when he had to wear anything inhibiting speech. It was years ago, when he was just a hatchling, but he still remembered vividly the annoyance and anger Moonlight exhibited when forced to wear a head-bind with a sort of metal stick inside. He truly hated having his speech taken away. To think that he would do something like that to himself willingly just to make Scab feel better... He was glad, really glad.

With that came another thought; did his dad know how exactly Scab lost his tongue? It was a strange thought, for his dad not to know everything, but he was far away then. He could, for once, simply be unaware of what happened. And he should know. Scab got up, his dad following smoothly as he walked around the camp in search of one Night Fury that was witness to what had happened that day.

And indeed, he found her soon enough, stalking around harnesses waiting for modification, glancing up at the sky on occasion. She went rigid at the sight of Moonlight, eyes narrowing. *Don't think that I forgot what you did just because you saved us. The moment I can, I will be away from here. I don't want anything to do with you or dragons that follow you.*

A calculating look appeared in Moonlight's eyes for a fleeting second before Scab made an insistent howl and patted his mouth with his paw. She hesitated, then sighed. *Very well. Even you deserve to know that much.*

A far-away, if still annoyed, slightly dark look appeared in her eyes. Scab couldn't help but sigh; he knew what his father did, how his father was. It was easy to forget when he was so caring now, but memories of what he did with Pitch when he had a chance were enough to create a chilling sensation every single time. *Scab's friend, Snatcher, tried to resist when we were leaving that Invaders nest.* She cringed. *They killed him instantly.*

Scab trembled at the memory. It was so swift, so brutal. Even after humans started treating them with so much more cruelty than before, Snatcher's master stepping away stiffly before it happened stuck in his head.

They threw one of those long spikes at Snatcher, Scab tried to shoot it, but he still had this hard head-bind on... humans cut off his tongue, after beating him with those dead snakes.*

Moonlight bowed his head towards her, his eyes nearly as dark as the blackheart that devoured his best friend, a moment after he painfully failed his shot, with metal in his mouth in the way detonating it weakly, preemptively, unable to do anything as long spikes flew through the air, hitting Snatcher, how Snatcher's eyes dimmed, how this nothingness appeared where Snatcher was, and how it disappeared, leaving behind only a perfectly symmetrical, clean cut in the ground where the bottom of the sphere of nothingness was...

Scab broke down into sobs, Moonlight was immediately upon him, hugging and nuzzling and purring. They walked a little way before they sunk to the ground, Scab crying his heart out, and his father silently looking over him, embracing him and letting him mourn, letting all those bottled-up emotions spill out in an endless wave.

So... I didn't updated for quite a while, cause of it is college and writer block. Nothing more to say here.