686Chapter 27: Isolation
Author's Note – There will not be any POV changes from Hiccup, Toothless, and their 'narrators'.
Isolation
The Alpha Night Furies stared toward them in visible surprise and wariness. They especially glared at Hiccup; their eyes were narrowed, wings slightly spread, and tails twitching.
"What is this? Why is a human here?" the female growled.
"Explain this!" the male added with a snarl and stamp of a paw.
Hiccup stared in complete awe and amazement at all the glowing eyes and visible Furies around the clearing. Not only were all these Night Furies standing right before them, but they could also speak just like Toothless, exactly as he and Toothless had hoped!
This is amazing!
But they clearly did not look very happy that he was here with them. Their eyes were still narrowed, tails were twitching, and teeth were bared.
They looked like they wanted to tear him apart.
"Eat it! It is prey!" a male shouted.
"Kill the monster!" a female bellowed.
"Toothless, you want to, uh, explain for me..." Hiccup meekly gasped, leaning back against Toothless's chest out of worry.
Toothless curled his tail around him. Then he partially lifted his wings and glared back at the two Alphas and at the pack. As eager as he was to meet the pack of his kin, there was a real danger to Hiccup.
"This human is my friend! He is a brother to me!" he roared.
The Alphas both blinked and snorted, pawing at the ground and flashing their claws and teeth.
"A human is kin to a dark wing? That is twisted..." the female hissed.
"You let a human bind you and fly on you!" the male grumbled.
Toothless growled and rolled his eyes.
"Yes, I let him fly with me. No, he does not bind me or keep me trapped. I need him to help me fly."
That definitely confused the two Alphas as their ears lifted and heads tilted slightly.
"Why?" both Alphas barked in surprise.
Toothless once again held up the end of his tail for them all to see. It took a few moments before they noticed that one of the tailfins was not natural and did not wiggle with the remaining one. Then the Alpha pair and several of the other nearby Furies bellowed in confusion and sadness.
"Grounded!" "Lost tailfin!" "So sad..." "No flight?" "What happened to it?" "Did the human do that?"
"I lost it in fighting with bad humans! My human," he held Hiccup tighter with his tail, "saved my life... from a dangerous human and gave me a new tailfin to help me fly with! The new tailfin only works if he is flying with me on my back."
Both of the Alphas stepped closer, growled softly at Hiccup, and then sniffed at the false tailfin, inspecting it closely. He held himself still while they did so, and they eventually stepped back with soft grumbles.
"That is a twisted human-thing..." the male sighed.
"And it helps you fly? How?" the female warbled.
Toothless was very thankful that they did not look so openly hostile to Hiccup now. That was much better than before.
"My human sits on my back and makes the new tailfin move so that we can fly together. I do not understand all of how."
Wings-Of-Ice barked into the silence.
"I saw their flying, Alphas! What the dark wing says is truth!"
Calmer, more interested muttering followed that statement. Hiccup saw that everything was apparently calming down. That was reassuring and let him ask something he had been wondering about.
"Excuse me, but what are your names?" Hiccup warily asked.
The male answered for himself and his mate.
"I am Flame-In-The-Night. My mate is Snowfall. We are the Alpha pair of the pack."
Hiccup then inclined his head in a show of respect, thinking that doing so would probably help them to trust him. He at first wanted to smile, but then he remembered that the gesture could easily be misunderstood.
The Alpha pair apparently looked shocked because their wings, until then held slightly aloft in display, fell to the ground.
"I do not have wings to bend, but it is my honor to meet you both," Hiccup whispered.
"Dark wing and... human... what are your names?" Flame-In-The-Night recovered himself and asked.
"I am... Toothless."
"I am Hiccup."
Both Alphas blinked and glanced at each other in the silence that followed.
"Toothless? What were your sire and dam thinking when they named you that?" Snowfall warbled, her ears lifted in amusement.
Hiccup and Toothless shared a guilty grin while Toothless unwound his tail from Hiccup, the danger definitely having passed. He made sure to keep a close watch on the other Furies though. While this Alpha pair did not look like they wanted to do Hiccup any harm, he could not know that about the rest of the pack. But he doubted that anyone would be violent against the Alpha pair's wishes.
Getting Flame-In-The-Night and Snowfall to trust Hiccup was very important.
"We both have twisted names. It is one more thing that makes us similar," Toothless chuckled.
"Hiccup is a twisted name also? What does it mean?" Snowfall wondered.
Hiccup groaned and answered for them.
"Well, it has a couple meanings: one, it means a coughing sound, which I do not make, and two, it means a mistake."
Toothless growled at that reminder of what Hiccup's name meant.
"I do not like that twistedness in the name," Toothless huffed.
Hiccup looked back at the Alpha pair peacefully sitting on their haunches before him. The way their heads were slightly tilted made them look very curious, which made sense given that he was probably... definitely the first friendly human they had ever met... and the first human they could talk with.
"Yeah, well, I am much smaller than most humans from my tribe, from my pack. They didn't see a use for me since I'm not really a fighter. I was so small as a baby that the pack custom was to name me 'mistake'."
Flame-In-The-Night growled and slapped his tail on the ground.
"That is a bad-twisted pack ceremony!"
Toothless snorted.
"I agree! Humans have many twisted ceremonies. I should know. I have to live with Hiccup."
"Really, bud?"
Seeing their Alphas interacting with him and Toothless must have reassured the pack because several more Night Furies wandered closer and gave various cries or purrs of surprise as they arrived from the shadows and approached. Hiccup looked more closely at them, and even in the darkness he could see that there were several other pairs of adults who stayed close to each other's sides. As he noticed before, the males and females looked slightly different from each other, mostly that the females had fewer frills or nubs on their heads and had a leaner shape. Some of the newcomers were clearly juveniles since they were half the size of Toothless or even smaller. The children were generally being sheltered under a protective wing while staring wide-eyed at him.
"What is that!" "A human!" "Food?" "Food does not talk, silly!"
Flame-In-The-Night slowly padded closer to Hiccup and then sniffed him. Then the Alpha sat back on his haunches and hummed warily but also with clear confusion and a swaying tail.
"I have never met a good human before. Why are you different?"
Hiccup looked around at the curious and wary Furies crowded close around him and Toothless. He could even feel their breath and their purring of curiosity. There was from them none of the fear and open hostility that had been so strong only minutes before.
"I was always different from my tribe... from my pack. They wanted to fight dragons, but I could not because I was... am small, as I said. I looked at Toothless and I saw that he was not that different from me."
"Not different? We are very different. Humans hunt us, and we hunt humans. That is how life has always been!" Flame-In-The-Night softly objected.
Hiccup tried not to envision Night Furies actually hunting anyone. Surely they would not do such a thing. Fighting in battles was one bad thing, but deliberate hunting of each other was another terrible matter entirely.
"Maybe it has been that way in the past, but it does not need to be that way now. I know that we can live in peace together."
Flame-In-The-Night and Snowfall snorted and looked over their shoulders and tails to the other members of the pack.
"Yes, it will not be that way anymore. We are safe now," Flame-In-The-Night huffed.
"We have not seen humans since we flew to this range," Snowfall added.
Hiccup was about to answer her, but he froze when a young male, perhaps only ten feet long from nose to tail, crept forward and stood at Snowfall's side, rubbing against her shoulder. The young Fury's deep blue eyes were very wide and his tail was not stilled.
"Dam, is that a human?"
"Yes, Free-Flight, it is," Snowfall nuzzled him.
"Dangerous?" Free-Flight warbled with lifted ears.
"Maybe not. It might be warm to us. Where is Snowflame?"
"She is with Windripper, Breath-Of-Sky, and Mystery. I play with the human?" Free-Flight bounced on his paws.
"Not now, my little one. Now is time for sleep," Snowfall hummed.
Hiccup barely restrained himself from going over to hug Free-Flight that instant. It appeared that children would be children even across dragons and humans.
That got him thinking. He could see well over a dozen Furies right now, but he had no idea how large the pack was and how many others may be asleep elsewhere.
"Excuse me, Alphas, but how many of you are in the pack?" Hiccup eagerly asked.
Snowfall started grooming Free-Flight, licking at his neck and wings, while Flame-In-The-Night began speaking.
"Us you know. Free-Flight is our second of four winters. Snowflame is our first; she has ten and five winters. Wind-Biter and Starlight are mates. Their only female, Storm-Chaser, has five winters."
Hmm, they count years in winters just like some of the Viking tribes do.
Another female with a youngling a little larger than Free-Flight under her wing stepped forward a few paces, though she kept her distance.
"Hunts-In-Deep-Waters is hunting prey for his mate, Lightning. She is heavy with her first cub. Wings-Of-Ice you know and..."
"Excuse me," Hiccup politely interrupted, "you said that Lightning is.. heavy with her first cub."
"Yes, I did because she is," Flame-In-The-Night answered.
Hiccup and Toothless then stared at each other in total surprise and confusion as they began to realize what that might mean. It made no sense to either of them.
"Uh... wait... what?" Hiccup stuttered.
"Are you saying that we do not hatch from eggs?" Toothless asked, dumbfounded.
Flame-In-The-Night and Snowfall stared at him as though he had twisted his tail into a knot. He felt confused enough that he might have done that.
"No, we birth our young. How did you not know that?" Snowfall warbled.
Toothless stared at his paws as this knowledge flowed over him. The other dragons did lay eggs; he had seen them do so. He had always assumed that the same was true of his own kind. Why would his kind be different?
"I... never truly knew my sire and dam," Toothless sadly answered.
"No?" she added in solemn surprise.
"I was the only... dark wing in the nest. Other dragon dams helped to shelter me under their wings and gave me fish, but I do not remember others like me."
Snowfall gave a sympathetic purr as her ears fell.
"That is very bad. There is much bad in our life-flights, but we are safe now."
She resumed grooming Free-Flight, and Flame-In-The-Night resumed describing the pack. There was still a different look, more understanding perhaps, in the male's eyes.
"As I was saying, Wings-Of-Ice's mate is Eyes-That-Shimmer. They have two young: Windripper, a ten and four winters male, and Nightfall, a three winters female cub. Far-Flight and Sky-Dancer have one male, Breath-Of-Sky, with ten and one winters. The last pair is Growls-At-His-Shadow and Dreamcatcher. They have Tail-Hunter, a five winters female."
"And that is all of you?" Hiccup wondered.
"No, there are... three more. Moonbeam and Mystery are sisters. Moonbeam has two tens of winters and Mystery has ten and two winters," Flame-In-The-Night answered.
Snowfall looked up from grooming Free-Flight, and the Alpha pair shared a glance.
"The last of us is... Jumps-At-Fire. She flies far from the pack much and is away now," Snowfall huffed.
Hiccup leaned back against Toothless's side in amazement at how many there were in the pack.
So that makes twenty three! Wow!
"There are so many of you. This is amazing!" Hiccup exclaimed.
The Alphas softly growled while hanging their heads.
"There are not enough of us. We have none of our own sires or dams now. Our last old pack member who flew into these ranges, Whispers-At-Stars, died four winters ago. And life was not good before," Flame-In-The-Night answered.
Hiccup winced, easily imagining a possible reason for that since he understood more than the Furies probably thought he did. They might not even know that they are in a completely different world from the one they were... born in.
"There are no... dark wings where we are from. What happened to you all?"
"I want to know also," Toothless added.
Snowfall bent down to Free-Flight and whispered in his ear. He then bounded away and joined some of the other young Furies in a pile. Snowfall followed after her cub as the pack began to depart, likely to start returning to rest.
"Come with me," Flame-In-The-Night whispered.
They followed the Alpha male away from the other Furies and out into the darkness. The male's tail swayed behind him as they followed him by moonlight through the trees, around small gullies, and finally onto the warm rocks near the hot springs. Both Furies lay down on their bellies on the warmed rocks while Hiccup leaned against Toothless's side and was covered partly with a wing for warmth.
"My mate will join us soon," Flame-In-The-Night said.
Toothless gave a grunt of understanding.
The cold wind swirled in the pines with a whistle while the stars twinkled in the highest heavens. Hiccup shivered as he adjusted his mittens, fur hat, and heavy coat. His thoughts drifted to this somewhat sheltered place the pack appeared to be living in.
Ugh, it's not so bad here as long as the wind dies down. The hot springs are very warm.
Snowfall then bounded toward them from through the dark. Flame-In-The-Night gave a weary sigh and adjusted his chin on a rock as she lay down at his side.
"I do not like to talk about the life before. Not around the youngest ones. They do not need to hear much about that when they are still young and... not hurt," he said.
"Was life that bad?" Toothless warbled.
Flame-In-The-Night turned to them, and his deep-blue eyes narrowed.
"Do you not know how bad humans are? How they hunted us? Drove us from our dens and killed our old ones? Wore our hides as false-hides! Killed our cu..."
Flame-In-The-Night's backfins barely glowed a faint blue, but that light, if it was even there, quickly faded as Snowfall nuzzled his side while purring to him.
Hiccup imagined that what he saw, that odd glow, was probably a trick of the light. It definitely didn't matter when compared to the horror of what he tried very hard to not imagine.
"I'm so sorry. I wish none of that had happened..." Hiccup whispered, wiping his cheek on his coat.
The Alpha male grumbled and looked away into the sky with a flick of his tail.
"Saying that changes nothing; it does not bring back the dead."
"Were you a pack before?" Toothless asked, wanting to change the subject.
Snowfall answered, speaking softly.
"No, we made a pack after we flew here. We came from very different ranges, all of us. We lived in cold ranges and warmer ones. Pairs lived on their own outside of nests, and pairs lived in nests with other dragons. Then something happened to us. I do not understand it, but it happened to all of us at very different times and seasons."
"You heard a voice calling to you and you flew through... twisted skies?" Toothless asked.
Both Alphas glanced at him in surprise before Flame-In-The-Night answered.
"Yes, we did. Adults and the young flew together. Most of the old either did not fly or did not live long enough to make the flight and survive in this world. We did not even know what we were doing until we had flown that flight into new skies. Then we found this land and could not fly back to where we had been," Flame-In-The-Night explained.
Snowfall hummed with peace in her light-blue eyes.
"Our pack formed over winters of new dark wings appearing in these skies. We all joined into this pack for safety against hunger and other dangers. Some pairs were mates before and others became mates after joining the pack. Moonbeam and Mystery were the last to fly to us before you, and they flew to us four winters ago."
"Is that how many dragons like to live, in a pack?" Hiccup asked.
Flame-In-The-Night closed his eyes and gave a heavy sigh.
"Most kinds like to live with their own kinds when they can. Our pack is a new life-way because we dark wings did not live like this before. We are warmed to live as a pack though; it is much safer for us all, even if living close to each other causes some problems..."
Hiccup was curious what the Alpha meant by problems, but he had something else on his mind. So far he had only seen Night Furies here.
"Was it only you dark wings that came here? What about other dragons?" Hiccup wondered.
Snowfall answered.
"We heard the whispering call. Most of the other dragons did not. Moonbeam and Mystery are a little different from us, but even they heard the call."
Toothless remembered prior musings on why only Night Furies might have heard the call.
"Could that be because the others heard the big Alphas and Monsters more than we did?" Toothless asked.
Flame-In-The-Night considered it with a soft growl and lifted ears.
"That has lift. Most of the dragons in the old ranges live in big nests with Alphas that control their thinking. We are harder for nest-Alphas to control, and we might have heard the call when others did not. Humans," he looked at Hiccup, "have killed the rest of the dragons and forced them into Alpha's nests for safety or... other hiding where they can be hidden forever."
Hiccup winced at the slightly accusatory glare and at the implication of what Flame-In-The-Night had just revealed. That news would indeed explain why dragons were supposedly found mainly in the Archipelago; they had been wiped out from or driven out of the rest of the world. He also felt that he should defend himself from the hidden accusation.
"I know how bad humans can be. My tribe taught that dragons are extremely dangerous, kill on sight. Not all of us are like that though."
Toothless nodded.
"That old world is bad and does not want to change. But you are all living safely now in a new world where we are not hated," Toothless purred.
Flame-In-The-Night and Snowfall purred softly and lifted their heads, looking back through the forest toward where the pack was resting.
"Yes, this hidden world of our own is good. There are... no caves... but the water is warm, and we sleep as a pack under the thick trees and the stars. It is not very cold now in this season, but there is... good enough hunting for us all and no humans can hunt us here," Flame-In-The-Night said.
"Good hunting? You all look thin," Toothless observed.
Hiccup recalled that most of the Furies indeed looked thin.
"This season is cold, and more of the catches go to Lightning for her and the unborn cub," Flame-In-The-Night explained.
The Alphas still looked disturbed or wary though.
"What is wrong?" Hiccup asked.
"You are not the first who came here looking for us," Flame-In-The-Night growled.
"What?" Hiccup and Toothless both asked in surprise.
Flame-In-The-Night got to his feet and thrashed his tail while Snowfall remained in place.
"A thing like a human flew up here on a twisted-into-wrong dragon a pawful of winters ago," she said.
Hiccup and Toothless shared a wary glance. That description of a twisted dragon and a thing like a human sounded familiar to them.
"What did the human-like thing look like?" Hiccup asked.
"It looked like a living shadow under dark false-hides," Snowfall growled.
"Its voice was a hiss from the air," Flame-In-The-Night added.
"Nazgul!" Toothless growled.
"You know it?" Snowfall barked in surprise.
"Yes, there are nine of them. I have flamed many of them because they are bad-wrong-rotted false-life! They do not die to fire, but they do not like my fire now!"
"Did it say why it wanted you?" Hiccup asked.
Flame-In-The-Night turned toward the south, his ears swept back in worry.
"The thing wanted us to fly into the warmer ranges to join fighting, It said that it wanted to liberate us from the fear of humans. It promised that we would get many new ranges to live in and claim as ours if we fight for it and bow to its master as our new Alpha."
"Sauron..." Toothless sighed.
"What did you say to the Nazgul? You all definitely didn't join it..." Hiccup warily asked.
Flame-In-The-Night winced and looked away from them, turning to his mate.
"I and Snowfall said that our pack is safe now, and we do not want them to be in fighting. The shadow-life thing did not like what we said, and it said it would come back after we thought more about what would be best for the pack."
Hiccup thought about the situation and saw how tricky this would be.
We are basically asking them to join the war on the other side. But they didn't want to take the pack to war because doing so is dangerous. I totally understand that.
"That is part of why we wanted to find you all."
"Why?" Snowfall warbled.
"That Nazgul came from the enemy of all the free people: the humans, the Elves, the Dwarves, and others. We wanted to find you and maybe bring you to join the war on our side and live in peace with us after the war," Hiccup explained.
Flame-In-The-Night and Snowfall blinked and stepped back with a pair of faint snarls. They looked very disturbed at the idea and struggled to find words for a while.
"We are living in peace now. Why would we lead the pack into fighting? We have been hurt enough," Flame-In-The-Night whispered.
"But..." Hiccup began.
"No! It is not our fight! We owe humans nothing!" Flame-In-The-Night turned aside from them and stared into the distance.
The blue glow on his back, now definitely real and not a trick of the light, returned alongside a faint shine near his visible eye. Incredibly, a single tear streaked down his cheek before he gave a very deep growl while Snowfall gently nuzzled his neck.
"We have lost enough already..." he sighed.
Snowfall spoke softly after a long silence.
"Go talk to Moonbeam or Dreamcatcher if you want to know more. Their stories are not ours to tell. Most of the ranging hunters who will be here have flown back to us for the night."
"What about us? What should we do?" Hiccup asked.
Flame-In-The-Night and Snowfall stepped aside, briefly whispered, and then returned.
"We will let all in the pack know that you are both free to roost with us. Hiccup will have pack protection. Hiccup, if you hurt any of the pack..." Flame-In-The-Night hissed.
A flash of sharp and bright white teeth followed alongside very narrowed eyes. Hiccup did not flinch on the outside, but he did have to remind himself to breathe.
"Flame-In-The-Night, Snowfall, you dark wings, Night Furies as I call you, are like family to me. I will not hurt any of you. I swear."
"I hope not. Follow us," Flame-In-The-Night softly growled.
Hiccup and Toothless glanced at each other without saying anything about all that they had heard. There would be plenty of time to talk about everything later after they were rested.
They followed the Alphas away from the hot spring, into the deep trees, and onward through the heavy treecover until they arrived at the mountainside and saw what looked like most of the pack. The Furies were all huddled together in several piles. Young Furies were tucked under their parents' wings, and adults were resting chins on necks and tails on tails. Most of the Furies who were not asleep threw wary glances their direction.
"Pack! The human and the new dark wing are allowed to range with us for now!" Flame-In-The-Night roared.
"The human is under pack protection! None of us are to hurt him!" Snowfall added.
Having seen many of Toothless's different stares, Hiccup easily recognized the calm wariness in these dragons. That wariness made perfect sense, after all, since they probably had not seen or met a friendly human before. But at the same time, he was only one human among many dragons. He was completely harmless, as he hoped they knew. They likely understood that he would be very dead very quickly if he tried to do anything to anyone here.
"You will sleep back there," Flame-In-The-Night pointed with his tail toward the rear of the pack, right up against the rocks.
"We will. You have our thanks, Alpha," Toothless nodded.
Flame-In-The-Night grumbled at what was probably to him a strange gesture and then strolled over to where Snowfall had lain down at the front of the pack. Little Free-Flight slithered out from under a wing and shared quiet words with his father.
Toothless could only purr with a soft whine at the sight of so many of his kin. It was a sight he had long imagined was impossible. He did not think that any of these fellow Night Furies would try to hurt Hiccup now, but he wanted to be careful, just in case.
Then he padded over to an open area up against the rock wall. He and Hiccup had to pass closely by a pair of the dams, who growled softly in warning but without any anger or snarling. Then he lay down several pounces away from the nearest pair. Hiccup slipped in under his wing as always for warmth and safety.
Silence fell except for the hums and purrs around them.
"How do you feel?" Hiccup whispered.
Toothless closed his eyes and gave a relieved and weary sigh.
"I do not know what to think. I am not alone..."
Hiccup nudged his side and then laughed softly.
"No, you aren't alone. It sounds like there might be some lady Furies here around your age too..."
He huffed.
"Maybe you can find one and impress her..." Hiccup continued.
"I should do that..."
"Of course, that means you have to be impressive..."
He gently beat at Hiccup's head with his tail in retaliation.
"I definitely deserved that..." Hiccup chuckled.
"Yes, you did. I am very impressive."
"Yep, you never cease to amaze me, bud."
Even as he fell asleep later, he could not help but think about the possibility. From what he remembered of the pack, there were a few unpaired females whom he could get to know.
Maybe I can find one of the females here. That would be good. But first... I am not alone...
He knew that there would be plenty of time, many days or even months, to get to know all in the pack.
His kin.
"Is it safe?" "Can it play?" "Does it have wings?" "Where is the tail?"
Toothless woke up, lifted his head, and yawned widely, looking around him as he did so. Then he blinked and started purring as soon as he remembered everything that had happened yesterday.
There were four Fury cubs and fledglings as well as several dams a short pounce away from him and Hiccup. The young were staring at Hiccup under his wing and were definitely very interested in Hiccup's being here.
They have never seen a human before... or played with one!
He nudged Hiccup's side.
"Wake up, sleepy human."
"No..." Hiccup grumbled.
"Yes, the cubs want to meet you!"
Then Hiccup woke up and stretched, which made the young leap back and clamor while bouncing on their paws.
"It is awake!" "We should play now!" "No wings!" "No tail!"
Hiccup sat down next to him and looked over all the young while smiling at them. They were sitting on their haunches, tails swaying and ears lifted high.
"Who are you all? My name is Hiccup!"
They eagerly bounded up to him and started sniffing and nudging him.
"I am Storm-Chaser!" "Tail-Hunter!" "Breath-Of-Sky!" "I am Free-Flight; you saw me already!"
"You are very eager! Want to play?" Hiccup laughed as he stroked Breath-Of-Sky's neck.
That male was definitely the oldest and largest of the group, being just over about half of Toothless's size.
"Yes!" "Play!" "Tail-tag!" "Fun!"
"But I don't have a tail..." Hiccup pointed out.
"Oh..." they sighed.
"We can still play tag, just not tail-tag."
The youngest three bounded away to their mothers and started eagerly asking if they could play. Two of the mothers slowly walked forward, keeping their eyes on Hiccup as they did so.
"Human, you want to play with our cubs?" one of them asked.
"Yes, I do. I will be gentle with them. What are your names?" he politely asked.
The one with purple eyes answered first.
"I am Wind-Biter. Storm-Chaser is my cub."
"And I am Dreamcatcher. Tail-Hunter is mine," the grey-eyed Fury curtly answered.
A brief, hesitant pause followed as the two females stared at him.
"Why are you so warm to us and our young?" Wind-Biter then warbled.
"He," Hiccup nodded at Toothless and chuckled at how the Fury had two cubs already perched on his back, "showed me that you dragons are not monsters. What do you think about humans?" he warily asked.
"Flee on sight," Wind-Biter barked.
"I do not believe that you can be good..." Dreamcatcher growled.
Hiccup frowned.
"This might sound like a strange question, but why do you think that humans are bad?"
"They have hunted us and hurt us in... many ways," Dreamcatcher answered while looking away from him.
"But why did humans do that to you? Why did they hunt you?"
"They wanted to kill us, take our dens, and stop us from eating prey-animals," Wind-Biter replied.
"I think there is more than that. They only hunted you because they didn't understand that..."
"Pounce!" a voice cried from behind him.
Hiccup was tackled to the ground. He groaned as he fell on his face and was pinned by an eager and playful cub.
"Hunted!" Tail-Hunter cried with glee.
Then the ten foot long female cub started licking his head.
"Toothless, I am being hunted!" Hiccup cried, trying to shield his head from the attack.
"Good luck!" Toothless went back to chasing after Storm-Chaser and Free-Flight.
Dreamcatcher warbled in amusement and then bent down to Tail-Hunter.
"Little one, you should let the... good human get up."
Tail-Hunter reluctantly hopped aside and shuffled on her paws.
"You sure hunted me. Well done!" Hiccup chuckled.
"If only you had a tail. I could chew it!" she sighed.
He spared her mother an amused glance.
"Why do you think we named her that?" Dreamcatcher huffed.
The sound of heavy footfalls behind him got his attention. He spun around, stared, and burst out in laughter.
Toothless was walking on his hind legs while holding young Free-Flight by his tail in his toothless jaws. Free-Flight growled and twisted uselessly, unable to free himself.
As adorable as it was, Hiccup also thought something was odd about it. Precisely, it was strange how unconcerned the adults were. The young were bounding around and playing freely without any worry at all, despite having only met Toothless today or yesterday.
He turned back to Dreamcatcher and Wind-Biter.
"Are all of you like that?"
"Like what?" Wind-Biter purred.
"So friendly and playful. I mean, you all sleep in a big pile, your kids play together, and you watch each other's kids."
"We are a pack. We protect our own," Wind-Biter answered, as if it were an obvious truth.
"But he isn't part of the pack."
"No, but he is a dark wing, and he is warm to our young ones. We would know if there was rot in his soul-fire. He will probably be part of the pack soon."
That is very similar to how humans live. It is not every family for themselves only. It's a whole community.
Hiccup shrugged.
"We, me and Toothless, had no idea how you dark wings live."
He and the two females glanced over to where Toothless lay buried under three gnawing younglings, Tail-Hunter having joined the attack. The largest of the young, eleven year-old Breath-Of-Sky, stood a short distance away just watching the play.
"He lived in a nest with no other dark wings?" Dreamcatcher's ears fell as she spoke.
"True, other dragons helped to raise him."
"Where are his sire and dam?" Wind-Biter warbled.
"He doesn't know. They were... lost long ago. He is learning about his own kind as much as I am."
"We can tell you. What do you want to know?" Wind-Biter hummed as she sat down on her haunches next to him.
Hiccup was positively giddy at this opportunity. She was willing and eager to help him better understand Fury customs.
"Anything. What are your families like? Do you have... one mate only?"
"Yes, we have mate pairs. Life is best that way with not much in-pack fighting. Is that different from human life-ways?" Wind-Biter answered and wondered.
"No. We are similar. What about duties and work, like who does what among the mates?"
"Both help with hunting, teaching, and playing, but one always stays with the cub. Both raise the cub together, but we dams are more protective early in the cub's life."
"That's also similar to what humans do. We usually have the male do the hunting or work outside while the female stays with the kids early on. We probably do that because the males are better fighters and hunters. But that's definitely not as much of an issue for you dragons. Maybe human males aren't tough enough to be around the kids much..."
Then he had another thought regarding the Fury families. There was a strange aspect to how old the Fury kids he had seen so far were.
"What about your kids? I thought that there would be more of you."
"We only have a cub every ten winters or so," Dreamcatcher explained.
"Ten winters!" Hiccup exclaimed in surprise.
It sounded like a very long time between having kids, not that he would know anything about that part of life or ever have prospects of his own.
There must be a reason why their families are so small.
"Why so long between... you know... having cubs?"
"Our cubs need much time to learn and much food to grow. Once we have a cub, we do not want to make another until the cub is around ten winters. It does not have fire yet at that age, but it is grown enough to help with hunting," Dreamcatcher answered.
"And..." Wind-Biter sadly hummed, "it is not safe to have many cubs."
"Not safe? What?"
Both females closed their eyes and growled softly at nothing specific.
"The dam can die when birthing the cub..." Wind-Biter explained.
"Why?" he gasped in alarm.
"We do not know. Sometimes we bleed too much. Sometimes the cub... cannot come out... and both die..." she whined.
Hiccup's heart broke a little at the thought. He also started thinking about this problem, this tragedy. Childbirth was also something dangerous back on Berk, at least if that process was unsupervised.
"There must be something you can do about that. I mean, we humans have the same problem when our moms birth us. That's why we have midwives to help make sure everything goes well."
"What are those midwives?" Wind-Biter asked in confusion.
"Females who know things about how to help others to give birth. I don't know anything about it, but they help with... getting the cub out safely."
Then he remembered a detail from yesterday.
"Wait, isn't there someone here who is expecting a baby?"
"Yes, Lightning is with cub, her first one," Wind-Biter purred.
"Can I meet her?"
Wind-Biter briefly thought about it.
"I think so. She is probably resting by the warm water. Her mate, Hunts-In-Deep-Waters is on a hunt, but I can go with you."
"I will bring Toothless."
Hiccup went over to help Toothless out of the pile of Furies, much to the dragon's relief.
"They have so much soul-fire. I do not know what their dams do with them," Toothless whispered.
"Kids are kids even in a different kind of life. Hey, I thought we might go meet Lightning. She is the one who is, uh, carrying a cub."
"Okay. Sorry, cubs, I need to go now."
The three who had been playing the most were panting in exhaustion and wandered off to their mothers. The oldest of the younglings, Breath-Of-Sky, who had hung back all the while stepped closer and gave Hiccup and Toothless a deliberate sniffing. Then he stepped back, a confused look in his wide green eyes.
"Twisted... you smell strange..." he muttered.
"I agree! Hiccup smells strange," Toothless huffed.
"Well, I am a human," Hiccup groaned.
Breath-Of-Sky just warbled softly, his ears wiggling, and then turned aside and dashed into the trees.
Hiccup shrugged, joined Toothless, and followed Wind-Biter through the trees. Then they arrived at the warm springs and rocks, and they saw the resting Fury on the warm rocks, her head on her paws. It was very obvious that she was special among the pack.
She was the first Fury they had seen who did not look at all underfed. Her large lower belly was also a giveaway that she was not alone.
They did say that more of the food goes to her because she and the baby need it. That is very good of the pack to provide for her like that.
"Lightning," Wind-Biter hummed.
Lightning lifted her head and turned brilliant orange eyes on the three of them.
"The good human and his dark wing friend?" she warbled.
Hiccup bowed his head to her. Toothless did the same and sat down before her.
"This is amazing, meeting you. Are you... related to Wings-Of-Ice? You have the same eyes," Hiccup wondered.
Lightning purred in apparent approval.
"Yes, he is my brother," she answered.
He gestured toward her belly.
"If you don't mind me asking, how far along are you with your cub?"
"Ten moon-cycles. I have about two more moon-cycles," Lightning purred.
A whole year! Wow, that is a long time.
"Would you believe that I thought dark wings lay eggs?" Hiccup chuckled.
"What? No! Why would you think that?" Lightning gasped.
"His fault," he nodded at Toothless.
Toothless shot him an annoyed look and rolled his eyes.
"The other dragons sit eggs. How could I know that we are different?" Toothless huffed.
"Why did you not know?" Lightning innocently wondered.
"I was the only dark wing in the nest, and I never knew my sire or dam."
Lightning's ears fell slightly as she shuffled in place.
"That is chilling. No cub should not have its sire and dam. Like Moonbeam and Mystery," she sadly added.
Hiccup started when he heard that name. Moonbeam. He had heard that name somewhere before.
Didn't Flame-In-The-Night want us to talk to that one?
"I think your Alphas wanted us to talk to Moonbeam. Do you know where I could find her?"
"She has been on her hunting days. She will be back here with the pack before sunfall. Mystery was flying with the fledglings above the mountains," Wind-Biter answered.
"We can go fly with them. That would be fun," Toothless offered.
"Okay," Hiccup agreed.
Lightning surprised them by getting to her feet and slowly walking toward him. He held himself still as she approached and eventually sat down on her rear before him. She stared into his eyes until she chuffed.
"You have a good soul-fire, human," she said.
"Eh, lots of us do once you get to know us... even if we have stubbornness issues..."
Lightning then leaned forward and licked his cheek. Unlike whenever Toothless did so, he did not complain. Instead, he slowly reached out and gave her a gentle rub under the chin. She closed her eyes and purred softly at his touch.
"Human paws are good," she chuckled.
Toothless snorted and rolled his eyes.
"Yes, and dangerous too in a good way!"
"Dangerous, how?" she got to her paws and stepped back in alarm.
"They can make us fall asleep!" he explained.
Lightning relaxed and barked in laughter.
"That is not human paws! We can do that to our cubs with our own paws!"
"Oh, I did not know that."
"Yes, it is a way to make them sleep," she explained.
Hiccup punched Toothless's shoulder while laughing on his own.
"Ha! That explains a lot, huh?"
"Yes, it does..." Toothless huffed.
"Toothless, you must be my cub then," Hiccup grinned.
"Am not!"
Lightning laughed at them and then turned away.
"I am warmed to have met you both, but I want more sleep now," Lightning hummed.
She shuffled over to the warm rocks on which she then curled up to rest.
Toothless nudged his shoulder after they gazed at her.
"We should go fly."
"Yeah, let's let her sleep."
Hiccup left with him for a clearing they could take off from. He hopped into the saddle, but Toothless remained sitting for a while longer, still staring off toward where Lightning was resting.
"What are you thinking?" Hiccup asked.
"I just never thought I would see that, a dam like that with a cub... inside."
"Well, we had no idea that you Furies have cubs instead of hatchlings..."
"True. She liked you!" Toothless chuckled.
"What can I say? I'm just that charming! She couldn't get enough of all this..."
Toothless slowly looked over his shoulder, ears lifted and eyes filled with deviousness.
"Who knows? We might find you a mate here too!"
It took a moment before Hiccup understood, and he almost fell out of the saddle when he did.
"Toothless! No!"
Hiccup thought that these two fledglings, Windripper and Snowflame, were similar to the cubs in that they liked to play and had a lot of energy. However, they were subtly different in how they liked to play.
Windripper and Snowflame, both almost fully-grown in size but still apparently not adults, practiced fighting. Up in the sky, they flew at each other in mock-attacks, trying to clawlessly paw at wings or touch a vulnerable spot to claim victory. While on the ground, they batted at each other, tried to toothlessly bite each other, tried to pin tails, or just tried to fully pin each other. They constantly teased each other and shouted insults while doing so.
Hiccup felt very awkward watching when Windripper pinned Snowflame on her back. But that was apparently normal and accepted in these wrestling fights. She also pinned him several times.
Toothless just watched the fun play while purring.
The two Furies dashed into the sky, fought some more, and then dove for the mountaintop where Hiccup and Toothless were sitting among large rocky outcroppings. Windripper and Snowflame landed on the white snowcap and bounded toward them without hesitation, tails swaying and ears lifted. Neither of them looked at all afraid.
"Hello!" Hiccup cheerfully began.
"The good human! I am glad you are here!" Snowflame barked and laughed.
"Really?"
She hopped so close to him that he could feel her breath. Her sky-blue eyes were very wide and welcoming.
"Yes, you are different. Life can be boring here," she said.
The four of them looked around at the distance in all directions. Everything was grey and white except for the pines on the south side of the slope.
"I believe that," Hiccup agreed.
Windripper growled softly without any anger as he also came forward.
"I have never met a human before. I heard stories of them, but I was born in this range and never saw one of you before."
Hiccup shrugged.
"I'm a little different from most humans, but even the other ones aren't bad."
Snowflame and Windripper hummed to each other.
"All the stories we heard were of humans as fighters," Snowflame said.
"Not all of us are. They just don't understand you Furies aren't monsters."
"Furies?" Windripper warbled.
"Oh, yeah, you call yourselves dark wings. Humans call you Night Furies."
"Night Furies. I like it!" Snowflame barked.
"Me also!" Windripper agreed.
"By the way, your play-fighting is impressive," Hiccup grinned.
Snowflame purred.
"I have to make sure that my... future mate can fight well!" she answered.
Hiccup blinked.
"Your... future... mate. Wait, you mean you are already... together or what?" he awkwardly asked.
"We are a pair, in a way," she coyly answered.
Windripper purred and nudged Snowflame's head. He was just slightly smaller than her, which made sense given that he was a year younger. Even so, he was visibly stronger while she was a little quicker from what he had seen of their fighting and play.
"Yes, we have known each other as friends for many winters, and we have been on many hunts together," Windripper purred.
"Hunts in which I have to do the catching!" Snowflame groaned.
"Not all the catching. You know that I can catch something..." Windripper flicked his tail into hers.
Snowflame purred at that and leaned into his nuzzling of her muzzle.
Hiccup found it a very heartwarming image. It also explained why these two were so comfortable with the wrestling fights; they trusted each other and knew each other very well. However, knowing what these two intended toward each other also helped him realize that they might enjoy such physical fights for another, more intimate reason.
He didn't yet know enough of Fury customs to know how they handled that part of life, and he was not particularly interested in going out of his way to learn about it. That could remain entirely mysterious to him and...
"How does taking mates happen?" Toothless warbled.
Windripper answered.
"There is nothing twisted. We have life-mate pairs only, and the males and females both must choose each other and name each other as mates before the pack. We know when we are grown enough to be able to make cubs."
Snowflame grumbled and thrashed her tail.
"Wind, you are not talking about the best part! The chase!"
Windripper growled at her.
"I will be the first! I will catch you!"
"Typical male. You will not catch me..."
"Huh?" "What?"
She saw their confusion.
"The male must try to catch the female as a test. It is very fun!" she chuckled.
"Maybe for you females... we are just tired," Windripper groaned.
"Not too tired at the end..." she slyly purred.
"True, we can always do what we must."
Hiccup groaned while Toothless chuckled to himself. Snowflame appeared to realize something and turned toward the nearby rocks.
"Mystery! Come here!"
Hiccup started in surprise; he had not known that there was another Fury nearby.
Huh? How did I miss this one?
"I do not want to!" a younger voice cried out from the rocks.
"Why not? Come meet the good human!" Snowflame barked while standing upright.
"It is scary!" the voice shouted back.
"No, it is not! He is a good human! Come see him!" Snowflame answered.
The shy Fury hidden among the rocks said nothing for a long time.
Hiccup and Toothless gasped in shock when the Fury hopped out from hiding, landed on a rock, and flared her wings wide.
Mystery was pure white except for her brilliant purple eyes.
At about half of Toothless's size, she was smaller than either Windripper or Snowflame. She had no backfins, instead having one short sail-like fin-ridge down her back. Her head had no visible frills or nubs, and her wings were a subtly different shape. Everything else about her appearance was the same as a Night Fury, but she was definitely something different and special.
She was to them, just like her name, a mystery.
"Oh my gods..." Hiccup gasped.
"What are you?" Toothless warbled in amazement.
"Afraid of him!" Mystery pointed a paw at Hiccup.
"Me, scary? What?" Hiccup laughed.
Toothless slowly turned to stare at him.
"Uh, bud, what's going on?" Hiccup wondered.
"Here is how scary Hiccup is! Watch this!" Toothless barked.
Then he lunged and knocked Hiccup over so that Hiccup fell on his face in the snow.
"Defeated!" Toothless laughed.
"Did you have to do that!" Hiccup groaned as he got to his feet again.
Snowflame and Windripper laughed freely, but Mystery remained perched where she was. At least her ears were up instead of swept back.
Hiccup took a deep breath and decided to chance it.
It's go time...
He slowly started through the snow toward where she was perched. Her brilliant purple eyes never left him as he approached her.
"Let's try this again. Hello, Mystery!"
She ruffled her wings and stared him down. Toothless loped over to his side, intending to talk to the strange fledgling and reassure her about Hiccup.
Then she froze, staring at his back.
"What is that thing on you?" she hissed.
"The riding and carrying thing?" Toothless glanced at his own back.
"It is a bad thing!"
"No, it is not bad. I need it to fly."
She crouched low on the rock and flared her wings again.
"Where is your mouth-closing thing?"
He could only give a confused grunt, having no idea what she was talking about.
"My human is not bad. He is good. He helps me fly now."
"He helps you fly? What?" she tilted her head in wonder.
Once again, he showed off his missing tailfin and the new one while explaining it to her.
Mystery blinked in surprise and then looked at Hiccup a lot friendlier this time. She even purred softly.
"My human is like a brother to me," he explained.
"I do not have a brother. Only a sister-dam," Mystery hummed.
"Sister-dam? What?" Toothless grumbled, wondering what she meant by that.
After a little thought, he realized that it could mean a couple different things, neither of which was good but one of which was very bad-wrong-twisted to think about.
"My sister, Moonbeam, is like a dam for me," Mystery explained.
Hiccup sighed and deflated slightly, starting to realize some of what must have happened as he put the various pieces together. While he wanted to know the full story, it felt wrong to ask that of Mystery since she was still definitely a child.
"I would like to meet your sister," he told her.
"As would I!" Toothless eagerly added.
"She is hunting now," Mystery looked toward the western horizon.
Toothless again hummed up at Mystery; he still wanted to know what she was.
"Mystery, what type of dragon are you? You are not a dark wing like me."
She preened slightly and held her white wings aloft.
"I am a light wing!"
Hiccup and Toothless glanced at each other in silent thought until they both nodded and spoke as one.
"Light Fury!"
Toothless then turned back to Mystery.
"Are there any light wings other than you and your sister?"
"No. We are the only ones in the pack," she answered.
Windripper and Snowflame bounded over next to them.
"We treat them no differently from dark wings like us," Snowflame explained.
"They are truly part of the pack!" Windripper added.
Toothless purred in approval.
"We will fly to the cold water and hunt for the very fat lumps with tusks. They are good for eating!" Snowflame said.
Hiccup wondered what they were going to hunt.
Uh, Walrus? Seals maybe?
"We will fly back to the pack by dark. Will you fly back with Toothless, Mystery?" Windripper asked.
Mystery hummed softly while looking down on Hiccup. She appeared to be making up her mind about him. Then she chuffed, hopped down from the rock, sat down in the snow next to him, and hummed softly.
"Yes, I will."
Hiccup did not try to touch her; doing so felt like it would be pushing his luck too far. Getting her to not hate him was a good start given that she appeared very suspicious of him for some reason.
He had a grim guess as to why she was so initially untrusting of him.
They then went their separate ways: Windripper and Snowflame flying wingtip to wingtip into the north and Toothless and Mystery gliding down the mountains toward the thick trees. Mystery wandered off toward the hot springs where some of the mothers and cubs were probably resting.
Hiccup and Toothless watched her go as her white shape vanished among the trees.
"So that happened. We must have missed her hiding in the snow," Hiccup sighed.
"I did not know about Light Furies. There were none in the nest," Toothless explained.
"Yeah, they're not in the Dragon Manual either. I wonder why not."
"Is it a mystery?" Toothless grinned.
Hiccup rolled his eyes as Toothless stamped a paw into the snow.
"Alright, that's one fish to you, bud. Anyway, she has an older sister, Moonbeam."
"Yes, she is hunting now. Something bad must have happened to them. Humans must have happened..."
Hiccup frowned.
"Moonbeam had to raise her sister as if she was the mom. Yeah, that can't be good. We'll find out eventually."
With all the flying done for the day, Hiccup removed the artificial tailfin and set it aside with the various supplies. He also took off the rest of the riding equipment. It apparently itched if left on for too long.
However, they had barely gotten all the equipment off when one of the fledglings from before, Breath-Of-Sky, flew down and landed with them.
Hiccup wondered about Fury ages and what to call the children.
Hmm, I wonder what the difference is between the fledglings and the cubs? When does one become the other? He's almost as big as Mystery.
"There you are! I was looking for you!" Breath-Of-Sky barked.
The male fledgling bounded up to them and eagerly rubbed against Hiccup's side while sniffing him again. Hiccup chuckled happily while twisting the fledgling's ears.
"Hey there! You want to play?"
"No! I want you to follow me!"
Breath-Of-Sky closed his toothless maw around Hiccup's hand and then tugged at him. Hiccup looked at Toothless with an amused glance while Toothless just rolled his eyes. They were both completely unconcerned by this attention from Breath-Of-Sky.
"Alright, Breath-Of-Sky, lead the way!"
They followed after the eager fledgling after he let go of Hiccup's hand.
"This way!"
He led them past part of the hot springs to a small, steaming pond of the warmed water. Mosses grew on the rocks around the pond.
A pair of adult Furies were resting together on the warm shore, their tails entwined while the pair purred to each other.
"Sire! Dam!"
Two heads lifted and looked in their direction as Breath-Of-Sky jumped before the pair who were obviously his parents.
"Little one..." the female purred and nuzzled his head.
"Sire! Dam! Come here!"
They got to their paws and followed their fledgling over to them. The adults looked surprised and wary from their narrowed eyes and slow strides. They stopped several paces away to keep some distance.
Hiccup bowed to them, and Toothless did also.
"My name is Hiccup."
"Mine is Toothless."
They hummed softly in return.
"I am Far-Flight," the male said.
"I am Sky-Dancer," the female added.
"Sky-Dancer, that is a beautiful name," Hiccup told her.
"We heard some about the good human who lives with a dark wing. It sounded very twisted. Every human we ever saw was a fighter," Sky-Dancer growled softly.
"Many big fighters," Far-Flight hissed.
"Yeah, I am definitely not a fighter," Hiccup chuckled.
"I see that. You are not as big as the ones we fought and killed," Far-Flight added.
Hiccup did not want to ask for any details. That was all in the past and behind everyone now. He also thought it was odd that they would speak so openly about that part of life around Breath-Of-Sky. Or maybe it was not so odd of them. Their fledgling was much older than the cubs, and he probably had heard some about humans before.
Maybe he already knows about all that but is just not afraid...
"I flew back from hunting for fish, and then I heard that a new dark wing and a human were here with the pack. I thought the human was prey at first," Sky-Dancer explained.
"I've already been hunted in play by a cub!" Hiccup cheerfully pointed out.
"Tail-Hunter?" Sky-Dancer warbled.
"How did you know?" Hiccup chuckled.
Breath-Of-Sky grumbled and ruffled his wings in impatience.
"Dam, smell the human! His smell is twisted!"
"Twisted? What do you mean?" Sky-Dancer rumbled.
"He smells like us!"
"He would. He lives much with a dark wing, and together-life would share some scents," she explained.
"Smell him!"
Hiccup grinned at the fledgling's eagerness, and he offered Sky-Dancer a hand. Sky-Dancer huffed in amusement of her own, crossed the distance to him, and took a deep sniff of his hand.
Then she froze, her eyes narrowing on him.
An increasingly tense moment passed.
"Is everything okay?" Hiccup warily asked.
She said nothing. Instead, she slowly stepped over to Toothless and smelled him. She then spun around, bounded over to Far-Flight, and collapsed at his side, whining and trembling.
"Sky..." "Dam!"
Something very strange was happening, and Hiccup spared Toothless a wary look which the Fury returned. How could Toothless's scent spark such a reaction in her?
Sky-Dancer eventually stilled under Far-Flight's wing, though she was still unable to look over at them.
"I know your scent..." she eventually gasped.
"How could you know me? I have never met another dark wing until I flew here," Toothless warily explained.
Then she looked up at them. There were tears in her brilliant green eyes.
"A dam never forgets..."