Written at: 30 December 2021
Story Word Count: 15,048
Language: English (UK)
History:
Publish (FFN) – 14 May 2022
Publish (AO3) – 14 May 2022
Pairing:
- Hiccup (Toothless) x Light Fury
One year had passed since that incident. Not many things had changed.
After that fateful day, things seemed to calm down a bit. Ack and Phlegma spoke highly of his fighting skills. The village were torn between sceptical and believing them. While Hiccup had never really fought a dragon before, at least during a raid, they do appreciate the fact that he fought against an enemy of Berk.
"What are you doing?"
The 13-year-old boy looked up. Hiccup was in Secret nest in his dragon form, resting inside his own private place. It was an isolated cave he made for his own solitude. The place was not that big, but it had a table, a forge and some contraptions to keep himself occupied.
Hiccup was laying down at the corner, staring at several metal ingots in front of him. He had been staring at them for some time. At the cave entrance path, there was Cloudjumper the Stormcutter.
"Just thinking." Hiccup answered.
"I heard about what happened last year from other dragons." Cloudjumper spoke, staring at him. "You saved the dragons from Outcast Island. You also saved the humans from Berk and escaped the Outcast Island together."
Hiccup tilted his head. "Yeah. I had to save them all." He shrugged. "Gotta make sure I don't blow my cover and all that. It wouldn't do good if those two were left behind in the Outcast Island." He lazily spoke.
Cloudjumper snorted. "Why do you even bother with them anyway?" He questioned. "Valka doesn't and you're a dragon. You have no reason to be there with them."
"I know." Hiccup grumbled. He sat up from where he laid down. "… It was more or less because of my father." He admitted. "He was willing to mend the relationship between me and him."
"Your father did, huh." The Stormcutter hummed. He remembered Hiccup and Valka talking about how Stoick neglected his own son. "Did he finally come around to spend time with you?"
Hiccup snorted. "No." He admitted. "But he did apologise. It was something, at least."
"You know Berk would be hunting you, right?" Cloudjumper spoke as he carefully entered the cave. "They're humans. I don't trust humans at all."
He paused, before continuing. "Well, almost all humans. You've seen what they've done to us." He spoke. "Dragon Hunters, Dragon Trappers – all of them humans. So, why do you bother?"
"Because I personally don't care at all." Hiccup spoke. He did not know what those two organisations were but assumed them based on the name. "All of this were happening for a long time already. It's not my war to fight."
"It's already your war to fight." Cloudjumper argued. "You helped and healed those dragons."
"Because we dragons look for each other." Hiccup simply spoke. His tail lazily swaying behind him. "Why do you think I went to help them without any favour? I did it out of kindness. Nothing more, nothing less."
Cloudjumper paused for some time. Then, he carefully spoke. "You're being hypocritical, Toothless."
"I am aware." Hiccup lazily spoke.
The Stormcutter rolled his eyes. "Fine." He spoke as he walked to the cave entrance. "By the way, you have dragons waiting for you outside. Good luck dealing with them."
With that message, Cloudjumper went out of the cave. Hiccup tilted his head. He wondered if the questions Cloudjumper asked were related to what was happening outside. Deciding to do something about it, he stood up and walked out of the cave.
The cave way led to the main area of the nest. Specifically, it went out to the very top of the spiral balcony. There were not many dragons flying around. He flew down and landed at the bottom of the nest.
There, he saw several dragons. There were at least 20 of them. Cloudjumper were sitting right in front of them. Frowning, Hiccup landed at the front of the crowd.
"What's going on?" Hiccup asked the Stormcutter.
Cloudjumper gestured to the crowds. A Monstrous Nightmare stepped forward. "Toothless." He addressed Hiccup. "We've come to you to resolve our unpaid debt to you."
"There was no debt to begin with." Hiccup simply spoke.
A Deadly Nadder stepped forward. "You never admitted it, but we were all indebted to you." Shereplied. "All of us here had agreed. This cannot stay for long. Our debt to you had piled in and we were all unable to pay them."
"We have come to the decision to serve under you." The Monstrous Nightmare bowed. "We will stand on your side until the end of time, Leader."
"Leader." The dragons chorused and bowed down to him.
Hiccup looked stunned. He looked at Cloudjumper, who were sitting next to him, smiling. Hiccup realised why he asked those questions. The Stormcutter wanted to see if he was worthy of being a leader for a flock of dragons.
"But I'm not an alpha." Hiccup reasoned. "I am a healer and a fighter. I'm not a leader."
"But you are our leader now." The Deadly Nadder spoke. "We are now under your command."
"The title of Alpha were merely just that, a title." The Monstrous Nightmare spoke. "It did not matter to us. They were leaders, and now, you are our leader."
Cloudjumper poked Hiccup on his back with his tail. "Just accept it, Toothless." He spoke, looking amused. "They're not going anywhere until you accept it."
Hiccup frowned. He pondered on how to deal with the situation. He never planned on becoming a leader, but he did not seem to have any other choice. At the very least, having dragons under his command could be useful on helping him help other dragons.
"… Fine." Hiccup grunted. "I accept. Welcome to the Secret nest."
The dragons looked up. Everyone looked happy to hear them. Hiccup continued speaking. "The Secret nest is a neutral nest that does not align with any alpha you may had served before." He explained. "This nest does not have any purpose. This is a general-purpose nest."
The dragons were not quite sure what 'general-purpose' meant. Hiccup continued speaking. "I will set a standard for dragons living in my nest, and I will help you achieve that standard." He explained. "I'll train and teach you, and I will not stop even if you went out kicking and screaming at me. Is this something you want?"
"Yes, Leader." The dragons chorused. They looked determined.
"Great." Hiccup muttered under his breath. "Feel free to wander around. I'll be restructuring the nest for a bit."
Several weeks passed after Hiccup became a leader to a flock of dragons.
Managing a dragon nest was surprisingly not as hard as he had expected it to be.
The Night Fury had been teaching the dragons how to use nets and contraptions. It was somewhat easy to teach them, as there were over 20 dragons that he had to teach one by one. Once one knew how to do it, they were inclined to help and teach their fellow nest-mates. It helped that there was not many dragons to manage.
Some dragons were unruly on their behaviour, but his presence alone usually sobered them up to follow his orders. Thankfully, everyone were generally eager to learn more. It made things easier for him to teach them how to do things.
"Careful now."
Hiccup and his dragons were flying close to the Secret Island. The dragons were currently fishing using nets. Some of the dragons were flying back and forth, fishing and carrying large amounts of fishes on the nets they were carrying. Others were using the nets in the deep-water sea. The Night Fury was monitoring and managing everyone working there.
"Careful with your claws." Hiccup warned a group of Deadly Nadder.
"What?" One of them asked, surprised. Suddenly, his rope snapped, dropping the load into the ocean. He winced when he saw fishes dropping off from the net.
The other Deadly Nadders groaned. They were so careful at their fishing trip!
Hiccup grimaced. "Go back to the nest and get a new net."
"Yes, Leader." The Deadly Nadders chorused. The group of four went flying back to the Secret Island.
Hiccup thought that it was better than their first day. There were not that many incidents where they broke their nets today. They were getting better at the job. Some were even fast learner.
The purple-indigo coloured female Deadly Nadder he watched was quick on learning how to use the nets. She was competent at what she was doing. There were times where she would help others to learn how to use the nets. That dragon looked promising.
Suddenly, a Gronckle came to the hovering Night Fury. "Leader." He spoke to him. "Someone is looking for you in the nest."
Hiccup nodded at him. "I'll be there shortly."
The Night Fury looked at certain Deadly Nadder. "Hey, you! That Spiked Two-Legs over there!" He gained their attention. "The purple-indigo one. Yes, you. Come here!"
The dragon approached him. "Yes, Leader?"
"What is your name?" Hiccup asked.
"My name is Indigo." The Deadly Nadder introduced himself.
"Indigo, you'll be leading the food party." Hiccup ordered, surprising everyone there. "I have something else to do in the nest. Return everyone after the last rotation."
"Y- Yes, Leader." The Deadly Nadder – now known as Indigo – gulped. She was just given the responsibility to lead the food party by the Dark Chaser. It was an honour!
"Right." Hiccup mumbled. "Good luck."
With that, Hiccup went to his nest, leaving the dragons there.
Going back to the nest was uneventful. There were not that many dragons wandering around, mostly because the dragons were busy fishing outside. There was a large pile of fishes at the centre of the nest.
Notably, there were a lot of cave paths around the balconies. Those led to living quarters for the dragons. It was where the dragons rest and sleep for the day. Every dragon may have one living quarter all for themselves. They were intentionally made like that to make sure that everyone had their own privacy.
Apparently, that was a rare concept for dragon nests. When Hiccup made them like that, everyone relished the fact that they could be left alone at any time whenever they wanted. Some dragons could also live together in one quarter if they wanted to.
Entering the nest, Hiccup noticed that there were several dragons on the ground there, but none of them were injured or anything. He also saw Cloudjumper there.
Hiccup landed in front of them. The Night Fury looked at the Stormcutter. "What's going on?"
"Toothless." Cloudjumper spoke. "These dragons are from Green Death nest. They wanted to join you."
Hiccup looked around the place. There were at least 20 dragons there. They looked strong and tough. The current ones he got were from Dragon Sanctuary, most of which were composed of food gatherers and rescue dragons. Most of them were not fighter by any means.
"Alright." Hiccup nodded. He turned to look at the dragons. "Welcome to the Secret nest." He declared, welcoming them. However, they looked unsure for a second.
"Err – Toothless?" Cloudjumper started.
"Yeah?" Hiccup turned to look at him.
"They told me they want to fight you first before joining." The Stormcutter informed him.
The Night Fury looked at the dragons. Everyone there looked determined. He saw Changewings, Snow Wraiths, Triple Strykes, Woolly Howls, Skrills – all assortments of strong dragons that others would not find anywhere. There were awful lot of strike class dragons, for some reason.
"Okay." Hiccup nodded. "Let's take it outside then."
Moments later, they were outside the nest. The Island had a massive flat clearing. This was the place that Hiccup used to teach his dragons how to use contraptions. There was nothing else there, not even trees. It was just a flat rock.
The Night Fury was standing at the centre. Cloudjumper was watching on the side-line. The dragons were on the opposite side.
"Alright." Hiccup started. "How do you want to do this?"
A Woolly Howl approached him. "First dragon to yield or disabled lose the battle. I will start first."
"Let's begin then."
The Woolly Howl started by firing an ice blast. Hiccup sprung up into the sky to dodge. He fired a plasma blast at him. The Woolly Howl dodged, but the Night Fury fired again to his path where he would be after dodging.
The Woolly Howl did not expect this. The plasma blast hit the Woolly Howl, sending him sprawling onto the ground. Hiccup dashed forward and pinned him to the ground. The Night Fury pushed his head, revealing his neck to him. All that happened in mere seconds.
"Yield." Hiccup demanded.
The Woolly Howl knew when he was defeated. The Dark Chaser was too fast for him to fight against. "I- I yield."
Hiccup let go of him. The dragon stood from the ground and shook his head. The plasma blast was powerful. It tore through his scales and burned the flesh underneath. The Night Fury pushed his paw to him. He healed the Woolly Howl with dragon magic.
When the Woolly Howl was healed, the dragon took a step back and bowed at him. "Leader." He declared.
Hiccup nodded at him. The Woolly Howl moved to the other side of the arena. He sat and stayed there, watching the Dark Chaser battling against the other dragons.
The next one was a Snow Wraith. The dragon started by taking off. The moment he took off, Hiccup tackled him and pinned him to the ground. There was no delay whatsoever, as the Night Fury bit his throat. It was not a wounding bite, but it did send the message and shocked the dragons around them. He was defeated in a second.
The next one was a Skrill. It tried to electrocute the whole arena. Hiccup somehow disappeared and the Skrill was blasted from above not long after. The surprising part was that the blast was an electric ball. They did not know that the Night Fury could do that!
After the Skrill, a Monstrous Nightmare challenged him. It started by flaming its skins to prevent Hiccup pinning him down. In response, Hiccup somehow set himself alight with blue flames, just like the Monstrous Nightmare.
"HOW?!" The Monstrous Nightmare shouted. Everyone echoed that thought.
Hiccup gave no response. He dashed forward, taking advantage of the shock. He slammed his tail onto his face and finished him off with an overcharged plasma blast. The blast was directed to his wings. It exploded and instantly tore its right wing.
Hiccup approached him, growling. His fire seem to grow bigger and hotter. The dragons could feel them.
Seeing that, the Monstrous Nightmare was intimidated. "I yield! I yield!" He exclaimed.
When that was done, Hiccup stopped the blue flame on his body. He approached him and healed his injury. It instantly grew his wings back. The Monstrous Nightmare bowed to him, before rushing to the side where the losing dragons were resting.
"Leader!"
Hiccup turned to look. It was Indigo. She was flying towards him. The Deadly Nadder bowed to him. "Leader, the food party have returned."
"Good job." Hiccup nodded. "Let everyone eat their food. I will be with you shortly."
"Yes, Leader." Indigo bowed to him. "There were also dragons that wanted to see you. They said they need your medical help, Leader."
Hiccup let out a sigh. "I will be there shortly."
The Deadly Nadder bowed to him, before taking off into the nest.
Hiccup looked at the rest of the challenging dragons. "Right." He barked. "I have a busy schedule. Dragons to heal, nest to manage and all that. I don't have the time to challenge all of you."
"So, I'm going to make this easier for you." The Night Fury started. He clicked something on his backpack, and it popped off from his chest. "All of you, fight against me at once."
The dragons looked unsure. Cloudjumper looked alarmed. "Are you sure, Toothless?" He asked.
"I'm sure." Hiccup blandly spoke. He braced himself. "And begin!"
Hiccup instantly dashed into the sky. That kickstarted him to fly at significantly high speed. Before anyone could react, he flew up high, rolled off the top, going down and fired an overcharged plasma blast to the crowd of challenging dragons. It hit the crowd and obliterated some of the dragons there.
Dragons were sent flying around. Some were unfortunately knocked unconscious. They immediately took off into the air to attack against the Dark Chaser. The Skrills fired lightning bolts, Gronckles sending fireballs, Grim Gnashers blasting him – fire, lightning, acid and all assortments of attacks went flying in the sky.
Hiccup gracefully dodged all of them. He moved and turned while maintaining his speed. The other dragons were having trouble keeping up with him. While some could keep up with regular Dark Chaser, Hiccup was a completely different breed of Dark Chaser.
For the Night Fury, he felt exhilarated. It was not often that he had to fight against dragons. He had been training and studying all his life for them. It was refreshing to feel that all those training was worth the trouble.
Hiccup fired a plasma blast in front of him. A Skrill tried to intercept him and was blasted off the sky. He pulled up and did a loop, and quickly reached the pursuing dragon's rear. He blasted a plasma blast in the middle of a Grim Gnasher and a Deadly Nadder. It exploded in the middle, taking them out from the sky.
The opposing dragons were unmatched against Hiccup. The Dark Chaser head onto the last standing Skrill, snap rolled to dodge their lightning – narrowly missing his head and fired a plasma blast to their face. That hit and sent them down from the sky.
Cloudjumper was watching them fight. He was amazed to see his friend dancing in the sky. Fighting was not something he would consider him doing. It was more akin to him playing with them. None of the dragons could hit him!
He did look like he was faring well against them.
The Night Fury slammed a Flightmare with his tail, sending them down onto the ground. Hiccup looked around. There was nobody else in the sky. At least 19 dragons were down on the ground, not including Cloudjumper. That meant there was one left somewhere.
Something alerted him and Hiccup dove down, dodging a flying acid from hitting his head. The Night Fury moved to regain his speed. The dragon was pursuing him, close to his tail. Looking back, Hiccup saw a Deathgripper. He looked very determined to fight him.
Hiccup smirked. Nobody could keep up with him so far. It would be interesting.
The Night Fury moved to perform a tight loop. The Deathgripper followed, despite struggling to do so. Hiccup climbed high into the sky, and the Deathgripper followed. They both went high up into the sky, almost reaching the atmosphere.
Hiccup thought that was impressive. The dragon was not holding back.
It meant Hiccup did not need to either.
Flight trick usually only work once against someone. Hiccup had used it against Cloudjumper before, but it might not work against someone going all out in a fight. Upon reaching the stall speed, Hiccup had to dodge flying acid twice, before turning around and fired a plasma blast. The ball of plasma connected with the third acid blast, creating an explosion in the middle.
Both Deathgripper and the Night Fury dove down. They instantly gained a lot of speed as they dive. Hiccup was behind the Deathgripper. However, the Deathgripper had a trick up his sleeve – or hindleg claws, as it only have pincers on its front.
The Deathgripper spread his wings and turned to the side. Hiccup followed. But then, he turned to the other side. Hiccup recognised the manoeuvre. He was bleeding his speed to make him overshoot. He turned to avoid giving a clear shot. It was something that the Night Fury did as well before the merge. He had never faced against anyone doing that.
Deciding to improvise, Hiccup moved to perform the same manoeuvre. Instead of following him, he spread his wings and turned to the opposite direction. The Deathgripper saw this and turned to his direction. Hiccup noticed and turned his direction as well. They met at the centre and the Deathgripper moved to stab him with his tail sting. Hiccup dodged it by snapping himself away from him.
They gained distance from each other, before turning back to meet at the centre once more. This time, Hiccup was ready. He extended his claws to swipe him. The Deathgripper narrowly avoided it.
The Night Fury and the Deathgripper engaged in a deadly dance of downward rolling scissors. Each blow they had thrown to each other were either dodged or blocked by the other side. They were at same speed, same manoeuvrability and prowess. They were both going too fast to really stop themselves.
After some time, they both realised that they were at stalemate. The ground was coming close to them. Hiccup decided to pull another trick. He snapped his wings close and the Deathgripper followed. The Night Fury used his tail to roll and turn, avoiding explosive acid sent his way. They were accelerating fast onto the ground. He dove down and fired a powerful plasma blast to the empty field.
The plasma blast hit, but it did not explode. It simply embedded itself like a rock and remained there like a blob of purple glowing ball. Hiccup pulled up and passed over the plasma blast. However, just as the Deathgripper passed it, the plasma ball exploded, creating a large explosion that struck the dragon from below.
The Deathgripper instantly lost control and thrown up into the sky. Hiccup took his chance. He turned and dashed towards him; claws extended. He slashed the dragon on his left wing, severing it. The dragon roared in pain and panicked over the loss of his flight. The Night Fury turned and dove to him once more.
This time, the Deathgripper was prepared. Using one wing, he flipped himself and fired acid towards the offending Night Fury. Hiccup fired two plasma blast; one hit the acid and exploded in the middle, and the other flew past and hit the Deathgripper's tail. That blew off his tail sting, rendering that useless.
Hiccup was not done. He swiped his other wing and severed that one as well, before flying away. The Deathgripper tumbled and crashed onto the ground. He immediately got up and growled at the flying Night Fury.
The Night Fury decided to finish the job. He flew up, turned around and dive bombed onto the Deathgripper. Loud, piercing shriek resounded in the sky. The Deathgripper began firing acid up to him, just as Hiccup fired several plasma blasts. One exploded in the centre, another close to the Deathgripper and the other one close to Hiccup. The last one, however, missed their targets.
The plasma blast hit the Deathgripper and flipped him up, sprawling onto the ground. Hiccup narrowly dodged the acid, but it grazed his tail and blew one of his tail fins. The Night Fury yelped in surprise. Realising he had no way to pull up, he redirected himself to crash onto the sprawled Deathgripper.
Hiccup crashed onto the belly of the Deathgripper with a loud boom. Smoke built up all around them. The Deathgripper immediately moved his pincer towards Hiccup, but the Night Fury had his neck on his maw, overcharged plasma blast ready to fire. They both stayed still there, frozen on what to do next.
After some time, the smoke cleared. Everyone could see what happened there. The Deathgripper felt heat coming off from his neck, and he realised that he was done. While he could severe the Night Fury on top of him, Hiccup would've blasted his head off from his body if he did that.
He had been defeated.
The Deathgripper limped. He let go of the Night Fury. "I yield."
Hiccup relaxed himself. He jumped off the Deathgripper, letting him stand from the ground. The Deathgripper was utterly exhausted. His body was shaking. He gritted his teeth as he held back the pain from the severed limbs.
The Night Fury looked exhausted as well. He brought his tail up to him to check the damage. His left tail fin was destroyed, clean from the base of his tail.
"Congratulations." Hiccup cheerfully spoke. He showed his tail to him. "You're the first one to ground my flight in a very, very long time."
The Deathgripper looked at the severed tail with wide eyes. He had done it. He had wounded the Dark Chaser!
He compared their wounds. He lost his tail and pair of wings. His body was bruised and exhausted. Comparing it with the Night Fury, he looked like he barely made it out alive. Hiccup looked fine, if not a bit exhausted, with a sheared off tail fin.
Hiccup flicked his tail as he casted his dragon magic. His missing tail fin instantly grew back. The Night Fury moved to the Deathgripper and healed him. That instantly grew back his wings, tail and mend all his wounds. It did not heal his exhaustion.
When that was done, the Deathgripper took a few steps back. He deeply bowed to him. "Leader."
"Tell me, Sharp Striker." Hiccup started. "What is your name?"
The Deathgripper paused. "My name is Scorpion."
"Scorpion." The Night Fury started. "Out of all dragons here joining my nest, you are the most promising one."
The Deathgripper – now known as Scorpion – looked up to the Night Fury. He could see the proud expression on his face. He felt happy that he had impressed the nest leader. Dark Chasers were known to be incredibly hard to be impressed with something.
It took him decades to train himself to where he was. All those practice and training finally paid off!
Hiccup continued speaking. "While they showed their combat prowess, none of them were as good as you. Dragons do not need to prove themselves to me to join my nest, but you proved yourself to me for something else."
"Let me be the one to welcome you." Hiccup started. He spread his wings. "Welcome to the Secret nest. You are now part of the nest."
Scorpion bowed to him once more. "Thank you, Leader."
"Right." Hiccup nodded. He looked around and noticed that there were still a lot of wounded dragons around the island. Some were conscious and watching the whole fight. He turned to look at the gawking, healthy dragons on the side-line. "You four. Bring the wounded into the nest."
"Y- Yes, Leader!" They immediately scattered to grab the wounded. They did not want to be the one at the receiving end of his wrath. They had heard stories of their combat prowess. Scorpion the Green Death's army general, and Toothless the legendary Dark Chaser.
Scorpion decided to join the Secret nest because he wanted a different environment. He was the one that suggested challenging the Dark Chaser. Now that they had seen them fight, they did not want to be the one fighting him.
"Let's go, Scorpion." Hiccup started. "I'll introduce you with the others."
"Y- Yes, Leader." The Deathgripper stuttered.
With that, Hiccup and Scorpion flew into the nest, leaving the dragons to clean up the mess.
Meanwhile, Cloudjumper was still there, gawking at the leaving form of Night Fury and Deathgripper.
"I think I'm in love." The Stormcutter whispered. He admired Hiccup for defeating him. Now, he admired him even more for his combat prowess.
Later that night, the nest was busy feeding themselves from the pile of fishes. Everyone was talking and chattering with each other. The nest was having a night feast. The new residents were chattering with the existing ones; getting to know them and welcoming them into the nest.
Cloudjumper had left after the battle.
Hiccup was watching them from the balcony. He had finished eating his ration. The others were in process of eating as well. It was common tradition for nest leader to finish eating first, stand somewhere and watch everyone eat. It made everyone feel safer.
Hiccup suddenly remembered Berk. He need to go back to Berk in an hour or two. He noted that he could not be late to go back to his nest tomorrow, because otherwise, the dragons would simply do nothing inside the nest. He needed to take care of that.
"Indigo, Scorpion." Hiccup called out, getting their attention. "Come to me."
Hiccup went deeper into the balcony. The two dragons flew up to follow him. Upon reaching safer area, the two dragons bowed to him. "What do you need?" Scorpion asked.
"This is something that Indigo probably noticed, but I can't always stay inside my nest." Hiccup spoke. "I have other things that I need to do outside. Have any of you know of my situation?"
"Situation?" Scorpion tilted his head.
"The King had informed me of your ability to turn human." Indigo spoke, surprising the Deathgripper.
"That's right." Hiccup nodded, confirming it. "I have a human settlement to deal with. I can't always be here."
"I noticed that dragons here doesn't really do anything unless I command them to." The Night Fury continued explaining to them. "Sometimes I would come here late, and only half of the nest would get their own breakfast. I don't want that. I'm going to make the nest more autonomous."
"I will separate my nest into sections." Hiccup explained to them. "Food sector and Security sector. Food sector would be responsible for anything related to food gathering. Security sector would be dealing with everything about keeping the nest safe."
"Each sector will have a leader that manage them." The Night Fury continued speaking. "They will only answer to me and nobody else. They would be the one leading dragons on the sector."
"That is why both of you are here." Hiccup explained to her. "Indigo, you have proven yourself to me to be a reliable food gatherer. You're smart and capable of teaching other dragons on how to use nets and other contraptions. You led the dragons back and forth to gather food for everyone."
"That is why, from now on, you will be the leader of the Food sector." Hiccup declared. "Do you accept?"
"I- I would be honoured." Indigo stuttered. It was a big responsibility; leading dragons serving the Dark Chaser. "I will do my best!"
Hiccup nodded. He turned to look at the Deathgripper. "Scorpion." He started. "Of all dragons in this nest, you are probably the only one that I found worthy of this. You did not back down when you were immobilized. You never give up until the very end, where you know for sure that it would be the end of you."
"While you are new in this nest, you had proven to me that you are strong, loyal and reliable for this." Hiccup declared. "From now on, you will be the leader of the Security sector. Do you accept?"
Scorpion deeply bowed to him. "I will not disappoint." He spoke. "I am loyal only to you, Leader."
Hiccup nodded. He knew absolute truth when he heard it. "Right. There are some other arrangements, but I'll make an announcement for everyone."
Hiccup, Indigo and Scorpion approached the balcony. They oversee the dragons below. Most had finished eating their lunch. They were waiting for their leader to dismiss them. In this case, Hiccup.
"Okay, listen up." The Night Fury spoke up, getting their attention. "I'm sure everyone here noticed that we have newcomers in this nest."
"I want everyone to welcome them." Hiccup continued speaking. "They are Secret nest dragons now. They are part of us now. If you have any problems, come to me and I will handle it."
"Now, for the second part of the announcement." The Night Fury spoke to them. "I'm sure you noticed that I cannot always be in the nest all the time. Sometimes, I would come back late and none of you were commanded to do anything."
"I do not want this." Hiccup firmly spoke. "I do not want any of you go hungry because none of you went out to gather food because nobody told you to. So, I want to make some changes."
"I will be restructuring the nest." The Night Fury declared. "The nest will be separated into two sectors: Food sector and Security sector. Food sector would be the one gathering food for the nest. Security sector would be the one making sure that everyone is safe."
"All sectors are still part of the nest. They are there to keep things running and organised." Hiccup explained to them. "Every sector will have their own dragons. Everyone are free to choose where they want to work for the nest, and everyone are free to move between sectors if you think the one you're working on doesn't suit you."
"There are no other changes other than how you work." The Night Fury explained to them. "I will be making cave rooms for each sectors tonight. Tomorrow, everyone could pick their sectors and work there."
"Which comes to the last part." Hiccup continued speaking. "Every nest sector will have its leader. They will only answer to me and nobody else. I expect you to follow them if you ever decided to join their sector to contribute to the nest."
"Indigo the Spiked Two-Legs will be the leader of the Food sector." Hiccup declared, gesturing to the dragon on his side. "Scorpion the Sharp Striker will be the leader of the Security sector. From now on, they are Sector Leaders. Everyone understand so far?"
"Yes, Leader." The dragons chorused. They understood the power hierarchy and dividing tasks between dragons. It was common amongst other dragon nests. However, it was their first time they were given the option to pick the task that they want. It sounded promising to them.
"Right. All of you, dismissed." Hiccup declared. The dragons flew up into the sky, going to their own quarters. The Night Fury, the Deadly Nadder and the Deathgripper on the balcony stayed behind.
"I expect you two to manage the nest without me tomorrow." Hiccup spoke up. The two sector leaders looked at their leader. "I will introduce the sector rooms tomorrow and leave you two until afternoon."
"Yes, Leader." The sector leaders chorused.
"And…" Hiccup paused. "Lastly, do not be afraid to question me."
The two dragons seemed surprised by that decision. The Night Fury continued speaking. "I am not perfect." He explained to them. "Nor are you, or any dragon in this nest. If there is something that might put the nest at risk, I want you to tell me."
"We will do our best." Scorpion slowly spoke. Indigo slowly nodded.
"Right." Hiccup replied. "Come to me if you need any help. Do not be afraid."
With that, the Night Fury took off into the air. He needed to make the room before going back to Berk.
Hiccup spent all night working on the sector room.
It was simple enough to make cave rooms. However, sector room needed to be big for the dragons to fly around. It took him some time, as he needed some rest after creating a completely new part of the cave nest. When that was done, Hiccup flew back to Berk and fell asleep.
The next day, he went back the next day and introduced the new sector rooms to the dragons.
The Food sector was basically a giant fridge; a place where food would be stored and could last for a long time. Hiccup had to instruct the dragons how to properly use them and explained Indigo how to manage them.
There were places for ice blocks and there were places for food. The place could drain itself and cold wind could circulate around the sections. Dragons need to get ice and dump them there, and food could stay for months without rotting. That also meant that food needed to be gathered in rotation, to prevent some of them going bad for being in the fridge for too long.
That was simple enough for the dragons to understand.
It was done like this in case they could not find food at all. Sudden winter was one scenario. Dragons would fight each other for food, because they were scarce to find during winter. Hiccup did not want to risk his dragons for that.
While the idea was common amongst Vikings, it was revolutionary for the dragons. When he explained this, everyone seemed to have their mind blown. He had gained newfound respect for being the smart and inventive nest leader.
The Security sector room was the simplest to deal with. It would be the place where Hiccup stashed their contraptions, plan and report for nest protection duty. It was also the place for dragons to train and learn new tricks. Every dragon had to go through training, so they could defend themselves in the wild when doing their work.
Scorpion thankfully knew how to manage them. He had the experience. Apparently, Scorpion was formerly Green Death's army general. He had moved there because he was heavily indebted to him; Hiccup had healed his whole family and brought back their flight, when nobody else could. He was the most loyal of all his dragons, and their fight yesterday had reinforced that loyalty.
Hiccup had to teach him couple tricks of his own, before sending him off to teach the others. It would be interesting to see what they would do on their first day where he was not present.
It was after Hiccup came back to Berk when he realised what he had done. He had essentially formed an inner circle to deal with the nest. While he trust the sector leaders to do their job, it would be the first time he let his nest to run autonomously.
"Oh, thank the gods it's not on fire."
Hiccup let out a relieved sigh. It was afternoon and the dragon was heading to his nest. He had done his work at the forge back at Berk, and then took off rushing to his nest. He was worried about his sector leaders messing up the place.
There was some dragons going back and forth through the exits. The Night Fury entered the nest.
The living sector was the place where living quarters were located. Hiccup had enlarged the place to make more room for potential inhabitants. There was a massive hole at the bottom of the nest. The hole led to several massive cave paths. It was where dragons would move between sectors. It was where most of the activities were. A lot of dragons were flying around there.
Seeing that everything was okay, Hiccup flew down and entered one of the cave paths. He headed down into the Food sector, where the food were being kept.
The Food sector was a large food storage. At the bottom, there was several large holes filled with food, with several smaller holes surrounding them filled with ice. The whole place was cold, as it was where they kept and maintain their food. It was also somewhat bright, since there were glowing crystals all over the place.
There was an exit cave mouth not far from there. It led to the outside of the nest. Dragons were coming in and out from the nest though there, mostly collecting food from the outside and dropping them in. Everything looked peaceful. There was nothing burning or anything unusual happening.
Hiccup noticed a certain Deadly Nadder shouting some orders. The Night Fury landed next to her. "I see you're doing just fine."
Indigo turned to look at him. She looked happy to see him. "Leader, you're back!"
"You did a great job." Hiccup commented, looking around the place. "There's nothing burning so far. I brought more nets for the dragons to use."
The Night Fury opened his backpack and pulled out a large bundle of nets. He placed it next to them. The Deadly Nadder bowed to him. "Thank you, Leader."
Hiccup closed the backpack. "Is there anything to report?"
"Some of our food parties were attacked by wild dragons." Indigo reported. "The Security sector managed to defend and chase them away. However, some of them were injured."
"I'll see what I can do." Hiccup nodded. "Good luck. I'll check in with Scorpion to see the injured."
Hiccup flew up and went into the cave way that led to the transit area. He needed to check to see how Scorpion was doing.
The Security sector was a simple place.
It was a large cavern with a lot of tools and contraptions laying at the corner, including nets. Like the other sectors, it had balconies and entrance cave ways on the walls. There were also a lot of glowing crystals that illuminated the place. Dragons were walking and flying around the place, busy handling the contraptions.
There were dragons training and fighting at the centre of the sector. He saw Scorpion barking orders there. The Night Fury sat at the corner, waiting for the Deathgripper to finish his job. He did not need to wait for long, as the Deathgripper saw him and decided to approach him.
Scorpion came and bowed to the Dark Chaser. "Leader." He spoke. "You're back."
"Yes." Hiccup nodded. He looked around the place. "I see you took my advice."
"Yes, Leader." The Deathgripper spoke. He raised his head to look at Hiccup. "Most dragons were capable of the flight tricks you showed us. I had taught them to the dragons, and they served them well during their patrol. I expect them to teach them to other dragons of ours."
"That's good to know." Hiccup nodded at him. He pondered for a moment, before speaking. "Say, I might have something to teach them. Do you think it's wise to teach them Norse?'
"Norse?"
"It's a human language." Hiccup explained to him. "Almost all dragons I've met doesn't understand human language. I assume you don't understand them either?"
"No." Scorpion shook his head. "I did not know humans have their own language. I always thought of them as an intelligent creature."
"You'd be surprised how similar we are to humans." The Night Fury explained to him. "They have their own language, culture and traditions. It would be useful to know what they were saying, in case some of us got captured or want to know what they were planning to do. I could use some Changewings to blend in to tune in to their thoughts."
The Deathgripper looked at his leader with awe. "You know Norse, Leader?"
"Yes." Hiccup nodded. "And I will teach them to my dragons. That includes you as well."
"Y- Yes, Leader." Scorpion frantically nodded. He looked ecstatic. "I would be honoured."
"Right. Get a batch ready for tomorrow." The Night Fury ordered him. "I will be personally doing this later."
"I will prepare them for you, Leader."
"Now, what is it that I hear about injured dragons?" Hiccup questioned him.
"We have them resting in the disposal area." Scorpion explained to him. "They were waiting for you to take action."
Hiccup found it odd why it was at the disposal area. It was meant to prepare dragons that were about to be buried. "Why are they at the disposal area?"
"For disposal, Leader." The Deathgripper explained, confused. "Some of their wounds were too severe to recover. They had turned yellow and made dragons sick. We expected them to die in a few sun cycles."
Hiccup knew wound infection. There were some plants and herbs that could heal diseases and infections. His dragon memories knew a lot about them, and his human memories knew how to get them from the village and their effects. Unfortunately, some of them were hard to find. He needed a lot of them in order to heal the dragons.
Fortunately, he knew how to grow plants and trees. It was something that he learned from Phlegma. The woman insisted on him learning about farming, since he was the one that seemed to learn a lot of things without much effort, and he had saved her life. Hiccup could not refuse out of sympathy, and he was forced learn farming from her.
That was a year ago. As expected, after Phlegma ran out of things to teach, she left him to teach other farmers about farming. That knowledge would not really be useful in the village, since he was not a farmer. However, it seemed that the knowledge might be useful for his nest.
"Bring me to them." Hiccup ordered.
The Deathgripper obeyed. He led Hiccup through a cave way, where there were a lot of injured dragons there.
The disposal area was simply a large cave clearing with a lot of blue glowing crystal. There were wounded dragons there, some of them had their limbs missing. Most looked sick and tired, looking like they were about to die in a moment. They had sickly yellow wounds on their body.
That was the sight that Hiccup and Scorpion came to. The Night Fury grimaced. He approached one of the dragons, pressed his paw onto their side and used his dragon magic to heal them. It instantly closed the wounds. That made the dragon felt better.
The others looked awed at that event. The dragon that he healed – a Deadly Nadder stood up and bowed to their leader. "Thank you, Leader."
"Your life is not over yet." Hiccup declared. "Now go back to your sector."
The Deadly Nadder went out through the cave way. The Night Fury looked at the others. He took a deep breath, before moving to get the rest of the dragons healed.
There were not that many dragons that was wounded. Two Gronckles had their wounds infected. Three more Deadly Nadders also had their wounds infected. A Skrill somehow had their wings bent the wrong way, and a Hideous Zippleback got their tail severed – the wound was infected.
Hiccup healed them all and made sure nobody was left injured inside the clearing. Seeing it was just him and Scorpion, he nodded in approval. The Night Fury approached the Deathgripper. "That's all of them?"
"… Y- Yes, Leader." Scorpion finally breathed out. "Thank you. You brought them back to life."
Hiccup frowned. "They are not dead. They are still alive." He titled his head.
"No, Leader." The Deathgripper shook his head. "I- I think I understand. You did not know about common nest tradition. I apologise, but I will explain them to you."
"When dragons could not recover from their injury, they usually succumb to their death." Scorpion explained to his leader. "Their wound would turn yellow, and they become sick. Nobody knows how to heal them. We thought you could only bring back lost limbs."
"I could heal any injuries that ever happened to a dragon." Hiccup corrected him. "The wound turning yellow means that the wound was infected. You can heal infection by eating certain kinds of plants."
"We can?" The Deathgripper whispered. He did not know this!
"Scorpion, are you telling me that you expected me to order their execution because they were sick?"
"I- I apologise, Leader." Scorpion deeply bowed down to Hiccup. "It was how I was taught for a very long time. It was how other nest runs."
Hiccup let out a sigh. "I understand." He sadly spoke. "You don't know what to do. That was expected."
The two fell silent. The Deathgripper was looking away, not wanting to see his leader in the eyes. Hiccup was thinking of something. It was barbaric to kill dragons because of something that could be healed. That needed to be stopped.
"Tell you what." Hiccup started, breaking the silence. "I'm going to teach the whole nest about medicine."
"Medicine?"
"The art of saving a life." The Night Fury declared. "I could not always be here to help. I do not want my dragons to die. Teaching everyone how to heal themselves and others through plants and fruits could save their lives, and maybe other dragons' lives too."
"That would be great, Leader." The Deathgripper breathed out. Their leader knew about a lot of things. He was wise to decide to follow the Dark Chaser. The nest had flourished because of the way they gather food. If their leader taught them how to heal themselves from disease and infection, it would make them grow even more!
"I'll be adding that to the pile of things to teach to the batch of dragons." Hiccup explained. He began pacing around, thinking. "In addition of Norse, I will be teaching them medicine."
The dragon paused. "… There should be more to teach as well." Hiccup pondered. "Farming should be taught as well."
"Farming?"
"Growing plants and trees for food." Hiccup explained to him. "Some fruits and plants needed to heal infection and some other diseases were hard to get. If we can make them inside our nest, we don't need to scavenge out for them. Most of them were edible for us, so it could be food for us too."
Scorpion stared at him. "That would be…" He spoke with utter admiration. "… amazing, Leader."
The Night Fury was oblivious of this. "I might need to make a sector inside the food sector." He spoke his thoughts aloud. "A subsector? Farm subsector. But farming requires coordination if you want to do them efficiently. That needs to be taught as well. Maybe I could teach them that as well?"
It was then Scorpion realised that there would be a lot of things that their leader wanted to teach them. The Deathgripper admired their leader. He could not wait for him to teach the whole nest about this!
"It might take several months to teach everything to everyone in the nest." Hiccup spoke to himself, looking up into the ceiling. "That should not be a problem, as long everyone was willing to learn."
"Months?" Scorpion was confused by that word.
The Night Fury blinked. "Sorry, that's how humans measure dates." He explained to him. "One sun cycle is one day. Thirty sun cycle is one month. One world cycle is one year. It's a Norse thing."
"Oh." The Deathgripper looked down. That sounded less mouthful than calling them sun cycle or world cycle.
"Scorpion." Hiccup started, getting his attention. "I will be teaching everyone in the nest about everything I know. I am putting you in charge of the schedule. Make sure the nest was running as usual, while I teach them about everything I know."
"Yes, Leader." Scorpion straightened himself.
"Good." Hiccup nodded. He walked out from the cave through the cave way. "I'll see you tomorrow."
The Deathgripper was left alone inside the cave clearing. He snapped out from his shock before running out from the cave.
He did not know when 'tomorrow' was, but he needed to prepare the dragons to be taught under the Dark Chaser as soon as possible!