It was such a peaceful evening. The moon, full as ever, hang in the sky, beams of light shed across the snow-covered ground. In the distance, he could hear the sounds of Terrible Terrors flocking together to do late-night hunting, and aside from that, he heard the wind that caressed the trees and ruffled their branches.

It was a wonderful, peaceful night, if not a bit chilly, but Toothless had learned that the isle of the humans was always chilly. All in all, he couldn't complain very much; after all, he had his scales to keep himself warm while the humans did not.

Toothless put his wings over himself and sighed. Stupid humans. The dragon was surprised they hadn't died off yet. No scales? No firepower? How on earth did they keep themselves warm?

The poor humans.

Toothless curled his tail around himself and laid his head down to sleep. His human was already sleeping soundly in his bed across the room. Toothless figured it was time he went to sleep himself. He would think about the humans tomorrow.

Now, it was time for him to-

He lifted his head again. He thought he heard something, faint and barely noticeable, creeping across the floor. Toothless looked at the wooden floorboards intently, his neon eyes scanning the floor.

There was something there, and as soon as Toothless' eyes caught it, it stopped moving. Slowly, ever so slowly, Toothless stood up, and crept towards it, sniffing the air. He eyed it, and then rested his chin against the ground, eye-level with this new discovery.

It looked like it had eight legs - ha, what a funny little creature! Eight legs? Preposterous! Toothless had four legs, and that felt like the perfect number. Humans had two legs - heck, his human had one leg! - and Toothless did not understand that, but oh well.

This was fascinating! A new discovery! Oh, his rider loved new discoveries, and Toothless couldn't wait to show him this one.

But then...then, the new discovery moved. It crept across the floor towards Toothless, its legs barely touching the ground. Toothless could have laughed; really, he could have.

But he didn't.

Because this new discovery had fangs!

Holy Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus! It had FANGS! Toothless growled and skidded backwards as fast as he could, but the new discovery continued marching towards him on those twig-like legs. Toothless didn't know where it had come from, or what it planned to do, but either way, his perfect, peaceful evening was gone.

How long had this monster been living in his rider's room without Toothless knowing? A week? A month? Maybe it had just moved in? Toothless didn't know, and he didn't care, because so far, the creature had not stopped moving.

Yelping in terror, Toothless sprang from the ground up onto the beam stretching across the roof. Yes, he would be safe up here. Surely that little thing with eight legs couldn't follow him.

Toothless looked at the bed his human was sleeping on. The boy hadn't been woken; he simply murmured and rolled over on his side. Toothless looked back down at the ground. He couldn't stay up here and leave his rider defenseless. Toothless had scales to protect himself with. Humans did not have scales, nor did they have claws or firepower or even sharp teeth. What would his human do if the new creeping creature with fangs caught him defenseless?

Toothless sprang back to the floor and hissed at the new discovery on the ground. Toothless did not like it now. He wanted it gone, and he hoped it would leave soon. But then, instead of getting Toothless' warning message, it only continued to advance.

This was too much for Toothless, and this odd thing with fangs was beginning to terrify the dragon in ways the Night Fury didn't know was possible. He roared indignantly, spread his wings, and shot across the room.

Unfortunately, he picked a poor landing place. A bookshelf toppled over, followed by a desk. Toothless yelped again at the added noise. He looked back at the odd thing, hoping that the racket had somehow scared the odd creature off.

But it was still coming straight towards him!

Toothless roared in fear and flew back towards the ceiling beam. He would stay here until the new discovery finally fled, yes. It was a good plan. A very good plan.

"To-Toothless!"

Toothless froze. His human was awake! Not many people could sleep through a bookshelf falling over, the dragon guessed. His rider threw back the blanket and got to his feet, stepping right towards-

No!

Toothless sprang to the ground again, putting himself between the new discovery and his rider. His little rider yipped in confusion, not that Toothless cared. He spread his wing in front of the boy, keeping him from advancing.

"Toothless!" his rider said. "What are you doing!? Why were you on the beam-"

Oh, humans. So oblivious when the danger was right in front of them! Toothless roared at the odd thing still creeping across the floor. He was scared of it, yes, but he wasn't going to let it get near his human, ever.

When the new discovery began crawling in the opposite direction, Toothless looked at his rider pleadingly. The boy blinked at him in confusion. He did not understand, Toothless realized.

Toothless gently nudged his rider in the direction of the odd thing, and the human looked at it intently.

"Um...Toothless."

Toothless looked at the lad. Yes?

"It's a spider, bud."

A spider! So the little dragon's-forsaken-creepy-thing had a name, after all! Oddly enough, the human didn't seem very concerned by this...this spider thing.

Couldn't he see it, though? The thing had FANGS!

Toothless whined pathetically. He wanted the spider gone. He wanted it gone, forever.

His human sighed. "I can squish it if you want me to."

Toothless' head shot back up in his direction. What!? No! We must kill it with fire! The boy still did not understand the danger they were in! Toothless decided that if he didn't want his best friend to get hurt, he would have to take care of this spider thing himself.

Stepping towards it, he took in a deep inhale of breath, and-

"WAIT! TOOTHLESS, WHAT ARE YOU-!?"

Kill it with fire!

-let out a plasma blast, straight towards the creature. A purple blast of light exploded through the wooden floorboards, carving a black hole through the ground. Smoke rose up, filling the room in black. Toothless snorted.

While his rider whispered, "Oh, man, Toothless…" behind him, Toothless looked around.

Not a trace of the spider.

Toothless felt very pleased with himself. So what if there was a giant, gaping hole in the floor. He had rid the world of a creature that could have been deadly. Who knew what it was capable of?

Toothless walked towards the burnt wood, sniffing carefully, just to make sure it was gone. He looked back at his rider and cooed. Did it work?

The boy coughed and waved his hand in front of his face, trying to clear the smoke out of the air. "Uh-huh, yep." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I think you got it, bud."

Toothless roared in glee. Yay! The dragon was thrilled. He saved his rider again! He bounded around the room, leapt over the hole in the floor, and rubbed his head against his little human's chest.

"Uh-huh...yeah," the boy said. "You seriously could have just let me step on it, though. It would have been less destructive…" The human looked at the hole in the floor again and winced. "Yikes."

Toothless purred.

…

In the days to come, his rider always chatted with the other humans he was friends with, telling them about Toothless' fear of spiders. While the humans and his rider shared a few good laughs, Toothless snorted.

Maybe he was right to fear those awful creatures. They were dangerous. And the humans laughed at Toothless as if being afraid of a spider wasn't completely logical! Toothless didn't care what they said, or what they thought, because he had saved his rider from the odd, eight-legged creature.

He would always protect his rider.

Always.

Author's Notes:

So, yep. Toothless is afraid of spiders. Nothing more to be said. :) I always thought it would be funny for "the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself" to be afraid of something small like a spider.

And poor Hiccup...haha. He'll be patching his floor from now on whenever Toothless sees a spider in the room.

I've never been afraid of spiders (not that I can remember), but they can look pretty creepy sometimes, I'll admit it. Especially the big, hairy ones. I've seen some big spiders in the past, and none of them were very...well...non-creepy.

Spiders are kinda cool, though. I think they are. :)

Until next story!

-BeyondTheClouds777