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“Oh gods, why is this always happening to us!?” Hiccup laughed incredulously as he stared down at the dragon-proof cuffs that encompassed his wrists. He gave them a bit of a jiggle and sighed. So much for the scientific expedition; Fishlegs had noticed that the nadders around the south of New Berk seemed shorter and had curves in their crown of spikes, he thought it was a mutation but, when more and more nadders shared the unique bendy look, Hiccup brought up the idea of a subspecies.
The two of them had taken their dragons for an observational glide of sorts in search of these new nadders, Astrid had been left in charge of the village, and for safety measures Hiccup had given Valka a map which had the area they were in now, circled in squid ink.
“Hey, at least everyone else is out there thinking about a plan to free us, I’m glad they know where we are.” Fishlegs answered Hiccup’s rhetorical question with a shrug of his shoulders. He was sat at the opposite side of the stone cell, dejected appearance, and sadly glancing off through the far side of the cell. Looking for Meatlug Hiccup guessed.
“Fishlegs!” He scolded, throwing a side eye at the guard who stood opposite them both.
“Thanks for that, I’ll tell them to up security.” The man huffed, his oversized arms crossed against his chest. He turned and walked stiffly out the wooden door. “Fools.” He spat at the pair as he closed it again.
Hiccup glared daggers at Fishlegs.
“...I’m sorry!” Fishlegs blinked back at him. “I didn’t mean that! I just… forgot he was there.” he grumbled, “I’m worried about my Meatlug!”
Hiccup supposed that was a fair enough reason, Meatlug was the one who happened to be shot out of the air with a dart, and he had intentions on catching the both of them, but when Toothless grabbed Fishlegs he surprisingly slipped right out of the saddle leaving the gronkle to thud against the rocky grounds below.
It was after they’d placated and measured three individual Southern Nadders that their little outing had gone haywire. The island they were currently on was unnamed, but clearly not uninhabited.
That they found out the hard way.
As they flew further East the dragons had grown tense, Toothless had heard something just out of human range and was leading them towards it when they heard the tell tale whispers of hurtling projectiles. Men dressed like rocks appeared out of plain sight, Toothless had been nimble enough to avoid the strange darts but Meatlug was a slower target and they got a lucky shot.
She hit the ground hard, and they demanded the night fury in exchange for her life. Hiccup had of course agreed, but not without promising Toothless that they’d get out of there.
A questioning warble brought him back to the present. “I know Bud.” He thinned his lips, Toothless was bound in the corner, muzzled, and his legs tied against his body; he couldn’t even stand.
“Ugh, I hate these people already, I mean, dragon fights, again?!” Fishlegs rested his head back against the wall.
Hiccup slumped down against the ground, facing Fishlegs, “Think Hiccup think.” He ran his hands through his hair. “Meatlug is probably okay, I’m sure they lobbed her in with the other gronkles, and maybe they left Toothless in with us because the other cages are occupied?”
“Yeah, I doubt they have another night fury in here.” Fishlegs snorted, Hiccup could hear amusement in his voice.
“Or a light fury even.” He added on. Toothless raised his head at the mention of his mate’s species and crooned. “Don’t worry, I’m sure she’s helping the others rescue us.”
Dragon fights, this wasn’t the pair’s first run in with them, but Hiccup could already tell these weren’t the usual trappers from Old Berk, maybe they did things… more safely? False hope probably, he scoffed to himself. Even though this island and Old Berk were days-by-dragon away, the arena had so many similarities, the three of them appeared to be in -if this was berk- the same size and type of cages where they kept the training dragons, except instead of heavy doors this place had thick metal bars. Then two adjacent stone walls, and on the opposite side of the bars, was the door that the guard had walked through. Presumably leading on through a series of back corridors and passageways for holding and leading around the dragons.
Hiccup and Fishlegs could see right through the gaps, straight into the fight taking place outside. Sadly it helped with their study.
Fishlegs, though, had his eyes closed again, and Hiccup could tell by the chanting of the viewers that it was getting gory. He watched through narrowed eyes as a Southern nadder and a Northern nadder wrestled on the red-stained stone, The Northern, almost a complete copy of his wife’s dragon, Stormfly, had the upper hand in strength, but the purple and orange Southern had a different tactic that Hiccup had never seen before, instead of flinging the spines off its tail, it used it like a mace and brought it up against the Northern dragon’s flank, completely catching her by surprise and that gave the Southern the moment it needed to throw it’s attacker off and righten itself.
They went back to circling and squawking. The crowd died down again.
“Right, Hopefully the others find us before any of our dragons end up in one of these fights.” Hiccup reassured himself.
The door flung open with a bang, “I just want you two to know that we doubled our defenses.” The guard smirked, clicking his fingers at Fishlegs like he just saved their assets instead of condemning them. Hiccup had no idea how many people the others would be up against. At least he was confident in Skullcrusher and Stormfly’s tracking.
The guard rolled an empty bucket between the two Berkiens. “That’s for weein’ in.” He grunted. “This is for eating,” two bread buns followed the bucket onto the floor. “Oh by the way your fury is up next.” He disappeared with a wink.
“No!” Fishlegs attempted to negotiate with the closed door while Hiccup dropped his head in defeat and reached out for a bun.
Toothless let out a growl, Hiccup knew he understood Norse perfectly, like, he was a night fury, not some terrible terror. Hiccup sometimes believed Toothless had intelligence higher than even the smartest of Vikings.
“Don’t worry Bud, with luck you’ll be put against one of the common dragons, and you already know how to beat those.” Hiccup sighed, using his fingers to rip the bun into smaller, bite sized chunks.
One of the nadders barreled into the bars and the two Vikings flinched violently as the other set of jaws grabbed its neck, Hiccup watched horrified as those long, thin teeth sunk deep and the Southern was pulled away, dying, in the grasp of the Northern.
“To the death… then.” Fishlegs finished his unworded thought.
Hiccup looked to Toothless, but the dragon was… scared? “Toothless?” he inquired. His dragon’s nostrils flared dramatically, like Toothless was struggling for breath, or trying to flush out an awful smell.
“Hey Hiccup what’s going on?” Fishlegs was worried now too. Having spotted the strange behaviour.
“I don’t know, maybe the nadder fight brought back memories of the fights he’s been in before?” Hiccup pulled apart his mind; it wasn’t like Toothless to be scared of a little confrontation. But maybe dragons could be affected by PTSD, heck, maybe Toothless had nightmares about losing his tail fin just as Hiccup had nightmares about losing his foot.
Toothless’ nubs were sticking up and alert, Hiccup worried that the muzzle was too tight, or maybe the rope around his neck?
Outside in the arena he watched as the corpse was dragged out by three men, while another swished a bucket of water on the worst of the blood pools.
“What an exciting round that was!” A voice boomed. Hiccup knew enough to figure out that the gruff, manly voice, belonged to the commentator and maybe the ring leader of this event.
“Well, it looks like you’re up, Bud.” Hiccup turned back to Toothless, the night fury’s eyes had returned to slits, Hiccup had run into thin pupils enough to know that as 'a don’t bother me I’m dangerous' warning. Toothless wasn’t in the right state of mind. He frowned.
“-You already know about the night fury!” Hiccup zoned back into the conversation outside.
“Word travels fast.” He sighed.
“But we have… ANOTHER!”
Hiccup’s eyes widened. He heard Fishlegs drop his bun in surprise.
“What? There was one already here!?” Fishlegs gasped, normally Hiccup would share his excitement with him, but he had a feeling -mostly from Toothless’ reaction- that that was no good news.
Two guards entered the cell, mumbling to themselves when they saw the panicked state Toothless was in.
Maybe night furies were just solitary creatures? Like some of the other animal predators he’s read about in books. Maybe they fought amongst each other to protect hunting grounds? But Toothless had always gotten along really well with the rest of the dragons in New Berk, and Hiccup had seen multiple other light furies in The Hidden World; they hung out together.
“Hey! Stop!” Fishlegs shouted as the two men brought forth long metal poles with a rope loop on the end, then lassoed Toothless. He thrashed his head around, unable to knock any of them away as the poles prevented him from getting closer.
“Back off.” One of the guards scoffed at Fishlegs, they stood on each side of Toothless and dragged the fractious dragon forward, just in time for another guard in the arena to open the cell bars.
“And you two, don’t get any ideas.” He narrowed his eyes at Hiccup, daring them to make a move to escape while the door was wide. Hiccup glared back, he was even tempted to throw the bread bun at the guard’s stupid, ugly face.
Toothless wasn’t making any noises verbally, like he was trying to avoid being found on the dragon’s radar, but he hadn’t given up on thrashing and squirming. Having one’s legs tied to your back clearly prevented him from gaining any traction on the ground with his claws.
“Hang in there Bud,” Hiccup whispered as Toothless was dragged past, “They’ll be here soon.”
The crowd began yelling louder than they ever had before as the new competitor was dragged into the ring. Hiccup frowned, he felt sorry for Toothless’ sensitive nubs.
Once three guards and Toothless were clear, the metal grid was shut, Hiccup and Fishlegs solemnly walked up and leaned against it, watching with worried eyes.
They both knew that against any normal dragon, Toothless would have no problem, but a night fury? And one that took part in fighting daily, that would be a whole other problem. Toothless had possibly never even fought one before either.
They watched, sticking their faces as close to the bars as they could, as the cell a few spaces down from their left opened.
“Don’t worry Hiccup, I’m sure they have the same fighting techniques, Toothless will be able to read right through him and avoid his attacks.” Fishlegs nodded, like he’d just discovered the answer that would save all three of them.
“Well by your logic, then the other fury would be smart enough to know that Toothless is smart enough to know what he’s going to do.” Hiccup replied, chuckling to himself that he sounded a lot like the twins in that moment.
Fishlegs frowned. “Yeah I suppose so.”
The commentator outside bellowed again. “We have the broken night fury, versing everyone’s favourite, Gold Lightning!” Hiccup rolled his eyes, that wasn’t a good name at all. Toothless had calmed down, or completely frozen, but he’d brought around his tail to look at the missing fin. Clearly he’d picked up the broken word and Hiccup would definitely be punching that man for insulting Toothless when they got out of this.
A loud, high pitched and elongated scream emanated from the opened cell, Hiccup was on the wrong angle to see inside, but it did sound like another night fury, and it didn’t sound like it was muzzled.
Looking up, the green tint on the metal that wrapped in bars around the arena took away Hiccup’s hope that Toothless could just blast his way free.
Toothless didn’t react as the men cut his restraints and pulled off the muzzle, he just remained staring deep into the cell, Hiccup could still see his flaring, panicking nostrils.
Maybe he recognized the fury?
Fishlegs gasped beside Hiccup as Gold lightning emerged with the same treatment as toothless; too guards by his side. He was the same dark shade of black, but bigger, only slightly, Hiccup could tell by the larger spines on his back and the number of tiny nubs under his chin that he was older. “Wow.” Fishlegs whispered.
Hiccup did have to agree that the colour of its eyes did match the given name. Toothless was cowering. Gold Lightning was prancing, they hadn’t tied up his limbs, and he trotted in towards Toothless with his wings extended behind him, Hiccup realised the dragon was boasting, and showing himself off to Toothless and the crowd. They certainly liked it,the new fury had a look of pleasure on his face as he took in all their cheers and praises.
“Why is he so scared?” Fishlegs asked Hiccup, referring to Toothless. Hiccup could only offer a shrug, he had no idea.
Something was off about Gold Lighting though, sure Hiccup only had Toothless to compare it too, but the corner of the bigger fury’s eyes looked dry and crusty, his nose was runny.
A sickness.
Maybe it wasn’t the fight Toothless was terrified of, but the disease?
“Fishlegs, how does a dragon as fast, as agile, and as intelligent, go extinct?”
“W-well if we’re assuming it wasn’t just Grimmle, then top of the food chain dragons like Toothless would have a different predator, one that isn’t man or beast.”
“A plague of sorts.” Hiccup spoke bluntly, despair and horror making itself known in his chest, curling around his lungs and crushing his heart. Guilt, Toothless wouldn’t be exposed to this if they’d never come here.
His dragon must have recognized the smell of the disease, maybe he had experience with it before, and it frightened him to the point where all alpha instincts had gone out the door.
“Here we are folks!” The commentator yelled, The two guards loosened the long poles and ran as fast as they could to the door at the front of the arena.
Both furies were untied now. Everyone was watching with intense concentration as the dragons stared each other down, they looked like stone gargoyles, Toothless on the floor in a defensive pose and Gold Lightning in front in an offensive pose.
“Get up Bud.” Hiccup pleaded quietly. Everyone knew the floor was no place to start in a fight. Hiccup worried what they would do to the furies if they ended up placated and no longer aggressive to each other.
Gold Lightning chirped, the vocalisation a bit distorted with sickness. Toothless moved so slowly, stretching out his wings and arching his back, standing on his tip-toes and fully copying the older dragon’s offensive stance.
Toothless growled and the crowd gasped when small bolts of blue lightning appeared, threading their way around his split dorsal spines.
Maybe night furies, being such intelligent species, realised that fighting was pointless and did nothing but wound and mutilate. Maybe they used intimidation alone? Hiccup thinned his lips and watched as Gold Lightning chuffed and brought forth his own deadly current. .
“Guess that’s a species thing.” Fishlegs muttered.
The dragons started circling each other, tracing well worn paths along the arena walls. Gold Lightning roared, Toothless interrupted him, his healthy voice overtook and drowned out the sicker fury.
The crowd was still silent, but not with boredom, even without ripping and shredding it was clear that the two furies had them caught in a trance. Hiccup was finding it hard to look away, not that he exactly wanted too.
“Oh geez.” Hiccup whimpered when both dragons came to a synchronised stop.
“You’ve seen the lightning! Now it's time for the death!” The commentator screamed, the crowd erupted, Gold Lightning charged with a roar and Toothless fled with a startled yelp.
The younger fury dodged the tackle and Gold Lightning sailed into the wall, twisting impressively to grab at it with his claws, holding on to the many weapon gouges in the stone. Even when his first attack failed, he still made it look like a success.
“Come on Toothless!” Hiccup and Fishlegs yelled as the subject of their interest kicked up and over another one of Gold Lightning’s tackles, Toothless then ducked and rolled when he pushed back off the wall and landed heavily in the spot where the younger dragon just stood.
Gold Lightning roared again, Toothless, though, was fractious, not exactly roaring back but throwing warbles and growls and whines at him. Like he was pleading, almost begging for the sick dragon to stop.
The two vikings backed away from the bars when Gold Lightning jumped up on them, they wobbled under force. Hiccup confirmed the sick dragon was male though.
Toothless, still terrified, was running aimlessly, Gold Lightning kept cutting him off and changing his path, the crowd still mesmerised by his avoidance acrobatics as Toothless suddenly jumped up and sailed upside down over his attacker. Gold Lightning reacted just in time to fling up his tail and catch Toothless’ wing, there wasn’t an obvious effect after the hit and Toothless continued on as if nothing happened.
His wings were strong from the near constant flying, but Hiccup knew that had to have hurt, he was hiding it just as Gold Lightning was hiding his sickness. The older dragon’s chest was heaving more than Toothless’ was.
“He’s not used to fighting something as agile as himself, Toothless is wearing him out.” Hiccup spoke quickly to Fishlegs.
“And making him mad.” Fishlegs gulped.
The low growls coming from Gold Lightning echoed around the arena; the two dragons had stopped, both opposite from each other, with Toothless right in front of Hiccup and Fishlegs as they caught up their breaths.
Toothless snorted and shook his head.
Gold lightning hissed and snapped at the air.
Hiccup wished so badly to understand them.
A familiar roar in the distance signalled the arrival of the Dragon Riders.
“Oh thank Thor!” Fishlegs rushed out. Hiccup guessed he was hoping for the rescue party to save them before Toothless was exposed long enough to get the sickness.
Night fury laughter brought his attention back to the fight, it wasn’t Toothless’, Gold Lightning laughed again and proudly grumbled. Toothless’ nubs were pinned back against his neck, he jumped forward and roared at Gold Lightning. The sick dragon had his tail held above his body and was moving his fins, folding and extending them.
“Don’t give in Toothless!” Hiccup yelled, wishing Toothless was a tiny bit closer so he could touch him. Toothless snarled, his half tail out of sight of the other fury. Hiccup was furious, the other dragon had no right to bully him.
A few warriors in the crowd left, Hiccup assumed they were off to help deal with the rescue party.
It was clear to Hiccup and Fishlegs that Gold Lightning had grown frustrated with Toothless dodging his attacks and to bring about a proper fight was trying to goad Toothless into leaping towards him. They watched appalled as Gold Lighting flopped to the floor with his tail fins folded and pretended to struggle to fly, mocking Toothless with quiet, fake, high pitched frantic mewling.
Hiccup looked at Toothless, trying to read his face. It was blank and portrayed no emotion, the younger fury just watched and the crowd laughed as Gold Lightning continued on with his play.
“That is disgusting behaviour.” Fishlegs frowned.
“Reminds me of Snotlout.” Hiccup sighed in reply.
Toothless snapped at him and flared his wings, roaring. Gold Lightning was up on his paws fast, just fast enough to catch Toothless’ attack. The two dragons had reared up, standing on their back legs while they grappled and clawed with the front ones, their teeth snapping and heads ducking.
Hiccup had a good view of the scuffle when they turned sideways, surprisingly when standing up Toothless was taller, longer legs? Odd.
Toothless broke a paw out of the other dragon’s hold and aimed a swipe for the muzzle, it was a diversion, Gold Lightning put all his focus on catching the swipe that he never saw Toothless put his weight on his tail and bring up his hind legs to ram into his stomach. Gold Lightning was kicked away, the crowd cheered.
“Yes bud!” Hiccup and Fishlegs joined in. Toothless was back on all fours now, roaring at Gold Lightning. A little bit of blood dripped onto the stone, Hiccup figured Toothless’ claws had caught on a few scales.
Gold Lightning wheezed, he hacked up a wad of mucus, the sickness clearly affecting his airways. Toothless yelped and backed off, Gold Lightning took it as an invitation and was on him in a flash. The pair rolled over and over, tails and wings flapping and bashing wildly.
Hiccup had nothing to say, hopefully the disease wasn’t deadly, hopefully the last two night furies hadn’t just sentenced themselves to extinction. One of them screamed, one of them growled, it was hard to tell them apart in the withering ball.
“Hiccup!” Fishlegs rubbed his shoulder and pointed with cuffed hands to the sky behind the arena.
“Thank gods.” Hiccup sighed, hovering a way off was Cloudjumper, Hookfang and Skullcrusher. Astrid mustn’t have been able to find a sitter for the kids and the rest, he guessed, were busy.
A shimmer in the air revealed the Light fury; Ruffrunner, Dart and Pouncer followed, the four circling observationally overhead.
A loud snap followed by a louder scream left Hiccup trying to cover his ears, something that he found hard to do with his hands locked together. “What was that?!”
The night fury ball had broken apart. Gold Lightning was laughing, and Toothless was…
“No…” Fishlegs whispered, Hiccup too shocked to make a noise. The crowd had thinned out, likely after noticing the dragons above.
Toothless had only one working wing now, the other, closest to Hiccup, had a visible broken bone, piercing through the wing membrane. It was the main one too, not one of the wing-fingers. Toothless was shaking, two of his claws were torn, twisted and nearly completely pulled from his paw. The other wing had a tiny tear in it, both sets of tail fins were unharmed, thank Thor, but his body was missing scales, covered in bites and scratches, and dripping blood in so many places.
At least Gold Lightning didn’t escape unharmed, he had torn claws, a broken tooth, blood weeping from a closed eye, and even more scratches than Toothless. The sick dragon was still laughing, but stopped when Toothless spat out one of his ear nubs. He reached up with a paw to find one of the middle ones had been ripped out.
Toothless chuckled then. Hiccup found himself feeling good that the other dragon was hurt badly, he mentally smacked himself, the last night furies were not supposed to kill each other, they needed to be protected.
“This is horrific.” Hiccup thinned his lips. He made a mental note to add to the Book of Dragons that in close combat, night furies were merciless.
The crowd suddenly started screaming and running from the stands, tripping over each other in a frenzy, Hiccup knew why, he could hear the Light fury’s diving noise, she was fed up with waiting for the rest to act and Toothless’ pained noises had driven her over the edge, she charged up and sent a shot flying into the metal grid, the explosion was gigantic, wooden bleachers were blasted away and the last remaining Vikings flew out to the sides. When the smoke cleared, she was clinging to the grid, Hiccup could only imagine the confusion she felt when it didn’t give way.
She screamed, Toothless, who’d been circling Gold Lightning, didn’t turn to look but barked at her a frantic reply, Hiccup watched as she bulked, barked something back, and panicky looked around her.
The three dragonlings materialised behind her in the broken stands. They barked curiously, warbling concern.
“Another fury?! What the heck happened?!” Snotlout landed on Hookfang, taking in the damage on both the black dragons. “Hiccup?!”
“In here!” Hiccup and Fishlegs yelled, Snotlout caught sight of them. “I know, I don’t know anything about that fury, do not trust him, and if you haven't guessed we ended up in dragon fights again!”
“I can see that!” Snotlout snapped.
“Dragon proof metal.” Eret landed Skullcrusher and dismounted. “Holy crap.” he cursed when he noticed the injuries.
Gold Lightning had his head tipped curiously, his one good eye flicking between the dragons and the Vikings. He probably hadn't seen dragon's being ridden before. Hiccup was glad this was enough of a distraction to stop the fight. “You did well bud.” He whispered to Toothless, his dragon crooned back at him, panting.
“It’s sick!” Valka yelled, having landed when Hiccup was distracted. “I was going to say that Toothless mustn’t go near it.” She spoke coldly. The Light fury crooned at her.
“You’ve seen this disease before?!” Fishlegs asked. Gold Lightning had his eyes trained on her, Hiccup knew the dragon was aware that everyone realised he was ill.
“I.. I have.” Valka spoke as she studied where the metal roofing met the stone walls. “I met a night fury pair once, A green eyed male and a blue eyed female,”
Toothless perked up at that, taking his eyes off of Gold Lightning.
“They were beautiful,” Valka continued,” Gorgeous, a delight to be around. But they were always, aloof, lonely? sometimes they appeared to be on guard, even in a safe nest.” She sighed. “I could never tell if they were looking for something, or running from something.”
“But you found out?” Hiccup guessed.
“Aye, the male came back one day with a night fury bite near the end of his tail. The conversation they were having was panicked and fast paced. The poor things were frantic, he kept repeating certain syllables, like she wasn’t believing it and she was asking him to repeat it. Suddenly she left, she grabbed their single egg in her paws and took off at top speeds, out of the nest, I never saw her again.”
“What happened to the male?” Fishlegs asked.
Valka looked at Toothless sadly. “I watched him mourn for his family, for the child he never got to meet, and I watched the sickness claim him. I tried everything, nothing could stop his running nose, or his crusty eyes, he developed a dreaded cough. Weaker and weaker he grew, No longer was he beautiful, but a pale, thin, dying dragon, all because he was bitten by another.”
Toothless looked down at himself and warbled sadly. The dragonlings cried out for him, and Gold Lightning laughed.
“It’s spread by saliva!” Fishlegs gasped.
“Okay well Valka can you do your dragony thingy to the other fury, maybe if we reach Toothless and wash off the saliva in those bites we may have a chance!” Snotlout instructed.
“Snotlout you’re a genius!” Hiccup praised him.
“I… I am?” He smiled cautiously.
“Cloudjumper, I need you and Skullcrusher to concentrate fire on where the metal meets the stone, if we can’t destroy the metal, we can melt the stone that supports it, and lift the lid off!” Valka commanded.
“Got it lass!” Eret looked to Skullcrusher, who grunted in agreement,
“Meatlug is in one of those cells!” Fishlegs brought up.
Not gonna lie, Hiccup had kinda forgotten about that.
“Alright!” Snotlout yelled, he opened his mouth, probably to yell fire, but was interrupted by the fury, who launched itself through the air towards Toothless’ mate. She snarled, her paw just narrowly avoiding his snapping jaws. Hiccup was suddenly glad that they hadn’t freed the furies yet, the metal between them was a welcomed barrier. Ruffrunner screeched, firing a shot at the night fury who dropped off the roof surprised, right into Toothless’ tackle.
The two of them slammed into the wall with brutal snarls and screams, Hiccup grabbed his hair and pulled on it just enough to hurt. They had gotten so close to the end of the fight, Gold Lightning appeared to be truly sadistic and wanted everyone dead.
Valka wasn’t about to risk her life dropping in to stop them, and the fury had made it clear that he didn’t care at all about anyone else, yet alone his own death-sentenced life. The Light fury danced around the edges of the arena, snarling and screaming, Pouncer was cowering underneath Cloudjumper, and the other dragons were out of Hiccup’s sight.
A crackle of lightning shot out of the blue sky and arched through the grate, missing both furies by centimetres. Hiccup had no idea which one summoned it, but a second came down just as fast and struck the other side. He could hear Snotlout scream in surprise.
Gold Lighting pushed Toothless away and swung around with his tail, the younger fury brought up his wing to deflect it, but it was his broken one, and the tail smashed through it again, leaving Toothless screaming in agony and darting away. Hiccup could see the threat of unconsciousness looming over Toothless like an ominous cloud as his eyes struggled to stay open.
“No, Dart!” Valka shouted, the night light was small enough to fit through the bars, she had her front half through, arms dangling and plasma blast charging.
Toothless looked up when he heard her name, but he didn’t give anything away to Gold Lighting, who was stalking towards him again. Hiccup watched as Toothless shook his head, trying to push away sleep. Then Dart fired, there was just enough fire power in the shot that when it hit the sick fury’s flank, his leg collapsed and he stumbled before fully recovering.
Toothless was struggling to breath through the pain, Gold Lightning whipped around and fired a plasma blast at the dragonling, Ruffrunner pulled her out of the way just in time.
Toothless screamed again at Gold Lightning, the blue glow making itself known along his back. The older dragon seemed taken aback for a second, before Toothless propelled himself through the air and rolled him over, pinning him against the floor, Gold Lightning kicked and grabbed hold of one of Toothless’ paws in his mouth. Toothless screeched and bit down on Dark Lightning’s neck.
Hiccup watched as he did the unthinkable, the younger fury had all his teeth buried in the other one’s neck, crushing, vice-like jaws further blocked the dragon’s windpipe, all the sickly mucus in there wouldn’t have been much help either.
“Toothless!” Hiccup yelled as his dragon summoned the white hot fire he used to warm his bed, and started shooting, all while his mouth was latched around the other black dragon’s neck.
Gold Lightning made no noise, but he spasmed and thrashed for a few seconds. Toothless let go, pried his paw out of the dead dragon’s mouth, and absolutely screamed at the body.
Hiccup watched him collapse.
At once Toothless’ family started panicking, and the three fire shooting dragons began to melt the stone. Hiccup felt like time went on forever before the lid was removed and the Dragon Riders landed around the carnage.
The Light fury was barking commands at her offspring, and she herself hung back. Hiccup could see she wanted to be closer, but the threat of deadly sickness was keeping her away.
He scoffed to himself, she cared about her life more than Toothless’. That was also unfair of him, so he shut down that thought.
Eret arrived and with Skullcrusher’s help they were able to drag open the barred door. Hiccup ignored them, running straight to his dragon and skidding to a stop at Toothless’ head. “Toothless?” He rubbed the scaled skin on his forehead.
“He’s alive,” Valka confirmed, “These injuries though, they’re extensive.” He could hear the worry that so thickly tainted her voice.
Snotlout was staring at Gold Lightning, Hiccup looked over in shock, Toothless had very much melted straight through the dragon’s neck and some of the stone below.
“Ooo it’s so good to see you!” Hiccup could hear Fishlegs talking to his dragon, him and Eret must have been searching the cells while he was looking at Toothless.
“Mum, have Cloudjumper carry Toothless back to New Berk, Snotlout, fly out in front to warn them of his arrival and give them time to gather supplies, broken wing, torn claws, multiple bleeding wounds.”
“You got it, chief.” Snotlout vaulted upon Hookfang and took off.
“My gods.” Fishlegs muttered, he had made his way over to them and had his hands up against his mouth. “Are they?..”
“Toothless is alive, I’m not sure for how much longer.” Valka answered. The Light fury screamed objections from behind her.
“What should we do with the body?” Eret inquired.
“It’s diseased, if we bring it back it’s a risk to the furies on New Berk.” Hiccup stated. Nobody bothered to correct him that Toothless was just as dangerous, simply because nobody wanted to believe it.
“Me and Eret will bury him here on this island, the soil isn’t too hard and it won’t take long with the dragons.” Fishlegs offered, scratching Meatlug, the gronkle was looking down at Toothless with concern.
“Good idea.” Hiccup nodded, he wiped a few tears from his face and watched as Fishlegs took out a notebook to get measures and sketches while Skullcrusher flew off, presumably to find a burial spot.
“Mum, let’s carry him back, dip him in the ocean a few times to try and clean out as much of the diseased saliva as possible.”
“Right, let’s get to it.” Valka offered Hiccup a leg-up to get on top of Cloudjumper, who then roared at the fury family, the remaining dragons took to the air, Toothless’ unconscious body clutched firmly but loosely in the stormcutter’s claws.
---
The ride back to New Berk was uncomfortably long, Astrid and Stormfly met them as soon as they entered the surrounding waters, no one said anything, Hiccup watched her take in the state of Toothless, he watched as her eyes lingered on his dangling wing.
They landed on a cloth sheet in a clearing, out of the village and away from the whispers and curiosity of the town. Snotlout had done good, Gobber was there with supplies and Gothi with medicine.
“There’s good!” Gobber gave them a thumbs up, Cloudjumper placed Toothless down then landed himself a few paces away. Snotlout ran up to Hiccup and freed him of his cuffs, something which Eret was going to do before Hiccup ran past him back in the arena.
Hiccup watched numbly as Gobber and Astrid manoeuvred the broken night fury, it looked like he was flying, only with his legs out at odd angles.
“Aye that wing.” Gobber spoke in hushed tones, the second tail smack had put another obvious fracture in the first wing-finger too. “Alright, never set a wing on a night fury before, not with two broken bones, but no pressure, heh?” He tried for a joke. It fell flat.
“Hey Hiccup, why aren’t they coming any closer?” Astrid whispered to him, indicating at the night fury’s family. Hiccup watched them, perched on branches in the surrounding trees.
“Because he’s sick, the dragon he was fighting had a terrible sickness. It's why there’s no night furys left, it’s like a dragon plague. And… and he probably has it now, so we’re doing all this for nothing.”
“Don’t say things like that, he’s a night fury, he’ll pull through!” Astrid gently bumped his shoulder.
“Well the other fury didn’t.” Hiccup mumbled.
“Other fury?” she gasped, and Valka started explaining the story of the sickness and the dragon fight to Astrid as she cleaned and bandaged wounds.
Gobber was listening in too, the shock at finding another night fury, and killing it, plastered across his face.
The twins descended with buckets of wet clay. “Got what ya asked… for.” Tuffnut spoke, it started off cherry, but the tone changed quickly when he saw Toothless. Ruffnut said nothing.
“-Fishlegs and Eret are burying the other dragon now, they’ll be here shortly” Valka finished.
Gobber grabbed the buckets from the twins and set them down beside Toothless’ broken wing. He washed grime off his hands in another bucket. Gothi started writing in the dirt. “Because the bone’s been exposed to air it could already have a disease that prevents it from dancing- healing I mean.” Gobber corrected himself when Gothi smacked him with her staff. “But we’ll do our best. He may react to this.”
Hiccup slumped down beside Toothless. With a grunt, Gobber forced the bone back under Toothless’ hide, the dragon woke up with a thrash and screeched, but Gobber held firm and moved the two broken ends together. A bolt of lightning flashed through the air and hit Barf and Belch who spun in a circle before collapsing.
The twins couldn’t care less, “Eh, he’ll be up soon, Ruffrunner is always trying to hit them so they’re used to it.” Ruffnut explained.
Everyone just blinked at them for a few precious moments before resuming work on Toothless, Valka was covering the cut in layers of fabric to protect it from the next layer of clay, which Cloudjumper hardened under fire once all hands were clear.
Hiccup sobbed, Toothless had faded from consciousness again, but could tell that the break would heal crooked, he didn’t know how flight would be affected, he didn’t want to know.
That was if it ever healed.
He felt a hand on his back. “I’m so sorry son.” Valka whispered, she sat down beside him shuffled around to take Toothless’ bitten paw in her hand. The bite was bandaged but…
“Broken too?” Hiccup raised an eyebrow, Toothless’ paw was no longer smooth, there was a bend in the middle followed by a slight rise, probably the bones.
Valka said nothing as she cut off the two twisted and torn claws, those would grow back, but there was no way to heal the leg.
“How’d the other guy look?” Tuffnut asked from where he sat on his unconscious dragon.
“Toothless melted a mouth-sized hole straight through his neck.” Snotlout answered bluntly. Hiccup could see that the twins thought it was awesome, but he was glad they’d grown up enough to know when to keep quiet.
Toothless was cleaned, patched up, and had been force fed some water. The decision was made to move him from the clearing into Hiccup’s house. The dragonlings were a bit miffed about having to sleep over with Fishlegs, but the Light fury made a show of it all and refused to step in a different house, so she’d been sleeping on the roof, oddly.
Toothless woke up on the third day, but he didn’t eat and he moved nothing except his eyes. Hiccup spent most of his days beside him, Zephyr took great pride in changing his bandages and Nuffink was mostly sad that Toothless wasn’t well enough to be awesome.
On the sixth day Hiccup noticed it, but ignored it, it would do him no good to see the sickly crust forming in Toothless’ eyes.
But everyone knew, and when there had been no Toothless in over a month, the whole village knew. He wasn’t recovering as he should.
The dragons seemed lost, most were confused, they could smell the sickness that emanated from Hiccup's hut, and authority was given over to Cloudjumper, who won in a scuffle against Hookfang for it.
But it was in the second month that Hiccup noticed a change; after wiping the drippy snot from his dragon’s nose, his attention caught on the two small claws on his front foot. They were growing back, he was starting to think they never would, Toothless’ body had put aside growing new claws in favour of using that energy to fight the sickness.
Sure enough when he peeled off a few of the bandages that covered even the shallowest of cuts, he noticed scabs.
Toothless was healing. Hiccup fought hard to keep the excitement at bay, but there was a possibility that if Toothless’ body had started to heal, then maybe the sickness was defeated.
He refused to entertain the idea that maybe Toothless was finally healing because he’d given up on fighting the disease.
A few days after that, and he woke up to silence, it brought about a crippling feeling of panic, and he raced down the stairs, not bothering to worry about waking Astrid. He should be hearing Toothless’ crackling breaths, silence could mean death.
Instead he was greeted with the sight of Toothless, sitting up and pulling off some bandages to lick the nearly-scars underneath.
“Toothless!” He approached gently and wrapped his arms around the dragon so very gently, Toothless’ breathing was clear, no runny snot to be seen. Toothless let out a warble.
It was on the third month that Toothless showed himself in the village again, his dragonlings were ecstatic, well so was everyone else, but they crowded around him and purred and trilled, he joined them, careful not to lick them, he didn’t know if he was fully cured. The Light fury joined him on walks, slowly building back atrophied muscles, but Toothless had more of a hobble, having to limp on occasion when his broken foot took too much strain.
When time came for the cast to come off, Hiccup sat in a chair with Toothless’ head in his lap, stroking up and down as a distraction while Gobber chipped apart the clay.
His wing was wrong, Hiccup knew, there was quite a bend in the main bone, but when felt with fingers, it was one, connected as it should be. The wing-finger healed nicely, almost not noticeable at all except for a slight bump.
Leadership was returned to Toothless willingly, once the night fury became strong enough to fly. Hiccup and Toothless were taking it easy, and surprisingly the bend offered no resistance, and the tear in the other wing had healed together, the pair were just as fast as before.
Another month passed with no trace of the deadly disease on any of the furies, Toothless took a gamble and planted an affectionate lick across his mate’s head. She was fine, and remained fine,
Toothless had survived.
He wished things with the other fury had ended differently, but sickness and power had gone to his head, but what he wanted more than anything? Was to find the remaining dragons of his kind, Gold Lightning had told him where they were, Toothless was looking in that direction now, but he had lots of years left to search.
Another time then.