((My apologies on the late chapter. I do not plan on making my updates a monthly occurrence. I would much prefer bi-weekly. Heck I'd prefer to get pretty far into the story before the next HTTYD movie comes out, but fat chance of that happening. I did read the review but didn't feel it appropriate to respond in the form of a reveiw. Anyways, sorry and enjoy.))

The sound of foot steps alerted Astral that some of her captors were headed her way. She hoped they weren't coming for her but she knew they likely were. She was already huddled against the far corner of the cage up against the cold rock hoping they might not see her or didn't feel like going the extra few feet to the back of the cage to grab her, anything really. As they got ever closer she hid her head under her wing. Maybe they would think she was asleep and not want to bother her or something. She wished she was asleep. Most the time she was just to pass the time.

Hiccup, Toothless, and the usual gang of adolescents came to retrieve their little Nightfury. After Stoic secured their release he nearly dragged them back to berk leaving behind the little devil that had caused this recent mess. Before Hiccup could advance he hesitated after being shocked at how much bigger she was. She was already three times the size as when he last saw her and that was only five months ago. His surprise worn off Hiccup reached forward to grab Astral while calling out her name to try and reassure her. Both Hiccup and Toothless noticed the hatching stiffen in response. Toothless brushed Hiccup aside and approached Astral alone. Cooing to reassure her in a proper dragon manner.

"Dad?" Astral questioned in proper dragon speech. She lifted her wing to verify with her own eyes. Toothless had initially planned on scooping her up right away but her speaking left him stunned. She just called him dad. He missed her first words. He was both endlessly disappointing and proud at the same time at having been called dad as if to reassure him that his adoption of her was not one sided.

"What's wrong bud?" Hiccup asked noticing the unusual hesitation in his dragon.

Astral was still too stunned to do anything but Toothless quickly got over his own paralyzation. He scooped her up in his wing and held her against him in an embrace purring in sorrowful joy to have his daughter back. Unexpectedly Astral found herself purring in response. She licked Toothless a few times to show her own happy relief the only other way she knew how. In kind Toothless removed his wing from Astral and began licking her into the ground. Never before in her life this or previous was she so beyond welcoming to being covered in saliva.

"So you can understand me now?" Toothless asked. That was probably the only thing he could have said that Astral understood. Well only one word of it but she could guess the rest. "Understand. No." She replied.

"Ok you two. We can enjoy warmer welcomes when we're back on berk. Let's go." Astrid interjected. Toothless gave her a nasty look but went along with it anyways. He grabbed Astral by her scruff and began carrying her back to the ship. "No no no." Astral complained, but her dad was not having any of it. She didn't really have the energy to complain any further.

Once they had made it on the ship Toothless found a nice area to rest that was both out of the way so he wouldn't bother anyone and hopefully in kind nobody would bother him, all the while still being able to seeing everyone and keep tabs on them. The larger Nightfury gently let Astral down on the wooden deck of the ship and curled himself around her not giving her any avenue of escape, not that Astral even though of trying. There was nowhere she'd rather be right now.

Those two were the only ones celebrating right now. Stoic was currently in a locked glare with Hiccup. Hiccup attempted to coax some conversation out of him. Get him to say anything. The silent stare was extremely uncomfortable. "So uh...What did you have to do to get us out?" He asked ignorant. Stoics glare only intensified. Eventually Stoic left to attend to other matters leaving Hiccup without an explanation.

"Great! Not only are relations with vikings and dragons reversing but my dad hates me again. The gods have always hated me. Is there anything that doesn't hate me?" Hiccup nearly yelled in frustration.

Astrid made her presence known by attempting to comfort him. "Toothless doesn't hate you. I don't hate you."

Hiccup locked eyes with her and his eyes did not speak of much comfort. "I'm the reason Toothless can't fly on his own. I did that to him. And you only started liking me after we kidnapped you. Right before that; and I mean on the same day. You hated my guts!"

That stung Astrid. What was Hiccup implying. She did not understand whatever weird funk he was in right now. Nor did she know how to help him. Toothless was a sure fire way to make him feel better but he was busy with Astral. Astrid realized something and couldn't hold back a short laugh. They almost had a love triangle thing going on. The most important thing to herself was Hiccup and won her time priority every time. The most important thing to Hiccup was Toothless and like wise always won Hiccups attention whenever it was a contest between me or him. Toothless on the other hand, his was Astral which broke the triangle. Course before Astral was along it was Hiccup. Didn't that make her the odd one out? She would have to change that. Now that Toothless had Astral. Maybe this was her chance to completely win him over. Hiccup though already took off. He didn't think Astrid was taking him very seriously when her response was to laugh.

The first thing Astral did when they had finally returned to berk was to sleep in the comfort of home. It was the best rest she had in a long time. Sure she tried to sleep as often as she could while captive but it was always a restless uncertain sleep. Now she could sleep soundly knowing she was safe and reunited with her father.

Astral woke up a little startled. It was dark, must be night. What tortures would this day hold. Yet she felt well rested, warm, and very safe. Oh right! She'd been rescued. The dark was really just her fathers wing keeping her lightly pinned between wing and his body and blocking out the light. Was it just her or did it seem a little more cramped under her father's wing than usual. Wiggling her way out as best she could without waking her living blanket, she found it to be mid day. Strange that her father was still asleep at such a time. He must have been really worried about her. It felt great to be back in Toothpick's room. She didn't really want to go anywhere but hoped up to the windowsill to take a good look outside. Something was off. It looked like spring was beginning to subtly change the place. Last she remembered it was still fall. Where the heck had winter gone? Surely she would have noticed the change of seasons even while in captivity. Astral backed away from the window in disbelief and lost her footing when the windowsill came to an end. She fell to the ground on her back and squeaked in some pain but mostly shock. That fall had a lot more weight behind it. Little did she know that was exactly what it was.

Toothless shot awake and went over to her in a single short jump and began thoroughly inspecting her as Astral shifted herself back on her feet. "Sorry, fell." Astral apologized for waking him.

Toothless took a moment to remember his daughter could speak now. "No need to apologize little one. As long as you are ok." Toothless crooned.

"Apologize?" Astral asked not really understanding what he was saying.

"That's right no need to apologize. Accidents happen." Toothless tried to reassure again.

Astral realized she wasn't using her body language right and tried again this time. "No understand apologize." She titled her head slightly while looking up at him to show her confusion.

"Oh umm apologize. It means to express regret for an action and usually also ask forgiveness." Toothless explained.

Astral tilted her head the other way having no idea what he was saying.

"Uhhh" How could he explain this in simpler terms. "Sorry is apologize. Don't sorry. Don't apologize."

"Sorry." Astral apologized for apologizing not really catching herself. Toothless laughed and gave her a good lick.

Every day now she spent learning the dragon language with her dad and even when he thought she'd had enough and it was time for a rest Astral would keep going, keep asking about what words were used for what. That one time after she woke up the first time since getting home reminded her that though there was a dragon language and she had learned some of it, she still couldn't really communicate much at all. After so long of being basically a mute she was so eager to soak it all up.

Things had not gotten much better since getting home for Hiccup. His father was still about as angry as he'd ever seen him. To make matter worse things with the dragons had only gotten worse since he left. There was even in incident of a resident dragon attacking a viking for the meat he was carrying which turned into a few vikings showing up as back up and fending off the dragon. Old memories began to resurface for both groups and of course this incident did nothing to improve Stoic's mood.

Worse was he had to burden this all alone. His dragon had understandably grown even more overprotective of Astral probably too much so. He'd hardly move more than a wing's length away from her most the time preferring to be far closer than that literally hovering over her almost everywhere. They've also been making a lot of noise. Seems Astral was learning how to communicate. He couldn't help but wonder if dragons had anything remotely as complicated as their language. He knew they were a bit smarted than most gave them credit for. Heck Stormfly and Toothless especially seemed to always know exactly what was going on. He couldn't help but doubt it though. He couldn't see how their series of growls and other noises could possibly translate into anything more than basic primal language.

Hiccup resolved to go talk to his dragon. He needed his bud now more than ever. For all he knew his father could outcast all the dragon tomorrow, including Toothless. It was so heartbreaking to think about it, he just wasn't going to think about it.

It wasn't hard to find the duo of Nightfuries. Never was unless they didn't want to be found. Once Astral noticed him she broke away from her conversation and ran over to Hiccup rubbing her head against his good leg...well only leg.

"Guess what I found out." Astral asked rhetorically. "I found out your name is Hiccup. I still think you should be Toothpick. Even like my dad. Toothpick and Toothless. Pfft Hiccup" Astral proceeded to laugh.

Hiccup found a smile creeping up on his face at the excitable little Nightfury. Though a little less little every day. It was crazy how fast she was growing.

But then Toothless approached and his smile faded. He collapsed on to his dragon hugging him around the neck. "Oh Toothless. I need you. I know you don't want to leave Astral's side after what happened but bud if things keep deteriorating, dragons may not have a home here anymore. I don't want to lose you. I love Astral but ever since she has entered our life you've felt distant.

Toothless crooned to Hiccup like he would to Astral to try and comfort him. He knew thing in the village were getting a little shaky but Hiccup was right. He'd been so occupied with Astral he hadn't really been paying attention to him. Hiccup was more than a best friend and now that he realized he hasn't been there for him he felt bad.

Astral didn't understand what the human was saying. That hadn't been apart of her lessons, but she did sense the shift of mood.

After some time of embracing each other Toothless separated. He had a dilemma. He needed to look after Astral. She was growing and learning remarkably fast but she was still a hatchling and they were the last of their species. But on the other paw he needed to help and support Hiccup too. This village was starting to feel crowded and noisy now. He picked Astral up by her scruff and gestured Hiccup to jump on his back. They went flying for a bit before landing on a remote sea stack away from the island of Berk. There they could relax. There they could think. Except Astral of course she just played around. At least Toothless didn't have to worry about Outcasts coming in and scooping her up. They all sat in silence for the most part enjoying each others company. But Hiccup had more to say.

"Why can't they see the dragons don't mean any harm. Their just following their instincts. If you take the time to learn about them then you understand them. It's simple but noooo. Why do that when you can swing an axe at it instead. That'll fix it!"

Toothless did his best to calm and comfort his rider as he proceeded to rant about his father. It had been too long since they were alone like this. They both missed it.

After returning to berk Toothless had made a decision. He had to make sure Astral was ok but also needed to attended to his rider. He couldn't do both very well so instead he'd teach Astral how to take care of herself. How to be a dragon. Judging by her mental intelligence and size she was more than ready for it. She was already the size of and had the mental capacity of a 6 year old hatchling despite being shy of only a year old. Probobly even more mentally. The problem was to do it right would take a long time. It had to be done eventually anyways and with how fast Astral was continuing to defy nature it should be sooner rather than later. He would have to take Astral away from the village and they would be away for a long time such a long time in fact he had no doubt Hiccup would think he'd abandoned him. It pained him to no end to think of that. First thing was first though. He was going to need that automated tailfin back.

It wasn't too hard to get Hiccup to realize he wanted another of those fins made. What was hard was saying goodbye after it was finished and attached. "What's wrong bud?" Hiccup asked worriedly. Toothless did not respond and instead took Astral by her scruff and took to the air.

It was a long journey to wherever her father was taking her. Gave her a good long time to think. They eventually landed on a rather large island probably about as large as Berk. "Dad what are we doing?" Astral asked still out of the loop about what was going on.

"Berk is a bad place to raise a Nightfury. I'm going to raise you to be a proper dragon?" Toothless answered.

That kinda made sense to Astral. Changing subjects a little it was time she asked a question that had been weighing on her for awhile especially on the flight over. "Dad...where is mom?"

Toothless cringed. That was not a question he was hoping to answer any time soon. "She's...not around." Was the best he could come up with.

"She's dead?" Astral asked with a tinge of sadness infecting her voice.

The heck. She was way too young to be already wrapping her head around life and let alone death.

"No and yes. We are the last of our species and I'm also not your dad. I adopted you. The egg that was you has been around for many years. We were sure... No you couldn't have hatched. Yet here you are.

Astral was sad but also found this ironic. In her last life she had never known her father and now in this one she wouldn't know her mother...and her father actually. That's fine. Astral had no doubt Toothless has been more of a father than her birth father could have ever been.

"Dad. I'm hungry." Astral said. She didn't know where to get food now that they weren't in the village. Toothless acquired a mischievous look that did nothing to put Astral at ease.

"I guess you'll just have to hunt something then." Toothless answered.

Astral quickly learned how serious he was. She failed every hunt she went on. Every fish swam out of her paws before she could claw into them. Every rabbit or squirrel darted away before she even got close. Giving chase didn't help much either. The bunnies would plunge into their burrows which she was too large to fit in now. Would have been a different story six months ago. The squirrel darted up trees and she could follow them up till they jumped to another tree. Every day she failed Toothless would give her only a couple fish to sustain her. It didn't take long till she found herself bathing in the sun to get the energy to do anything.

"First lesson." Toothless explained. "Dragons are warm blooded. Nightfuries though are the pinnacle of evolution. When food becomes scarce our bodies shift to cold blooded to preserve our bodies and food as much as possible. As you've noticed you need to soak up heat to use that as energy and the cold will sap that energy away. It takes about a month to transition from one to the other. Once food becomes abundant again you'll transition back to warm blooded. Don't worry though I'll feed you more to make sure you go back. We can get more done that way and I'll take a more active role in helping you hunt."

Astral was so glad when she was finally back to being warm blooded. Being cold blooded was annoying as heck.

"Second lesson." Toothless began to rant again. "A downed dragon is a dead dragon. Flight is our most useful tool for hunting, for fleeing, for traveling, and for just plain having fun. It's pretty common for a dragon who has lost the ability to fly to lose their will to live. Keep your wings and unique to our species your fins protected. Your wings is where your power comes from obviously. Your base fins keep you incredibly stable and can be used for precise small corrections which gives us our legendary never miss accuracy. Your tail fins are used for steering. The fact we have specialized fins for this gives us an agility advantage in the sky over all other dragons, but again with the downside that should something happen to them you'll be grounded."

"What happened to your fin dad?" Astral interrupted.

Toothless sighed. Partly missing his fin and partly not wanting to reveal it was Hiccup who caused it. "Not long ago literally a couple of months before you hatched dragons and vikings were at war. During a food raid one night one of the humans managed to hit me with a rope with stones attached that tied my limbs up including my wings. I crashed in a forest and one of the trees I hit tore my fin off. Hiccup saved my life. He fed me while I was trapped and with his help even allowed me to fly again.

That explained a lot for Astral. Why Toothless and Hiccup were so close. Why dragons and humans seemed like friends yet it just didn't feel right. It wasn't suppose to be. The humans probably won the war or something and the dragons were subjugated. Then again after so recent a war they weren't that mistreated. In any case Hiccup was an exception. He was different from the rest and shared a special bond with her father.

Toothless interrupted Astral's thoughts by yelling at her to spread her wings and fins. She already knew how to glide and before long she was flying. Instincts seemed to just tell here what she was suppose to do but only the basics. In any case it was exhilarating. Rocketing into the sky she quickly made her way above the clouds and leveled out. She'd bank and touch her wing against the cloud like she was skimming water. Everyone had the dream of flying but the most even ever got was a plane ride or a wing suit. Yet here she was flying with her own natural gifts her direction and maneuvers hers to choose. Instead of being rolled by a plane she was rolling with the winds like she was of the sky itself. An engine and propeller didn't move her forward rather it was the wind currents and thermals. It was like swimming in the water except light and far quicker.

When Toothless realized she wasn't coming down any time soon he went up to join her. At first they just enjoyed the thrill of flying together but then Toothless would start to give his daughter pointers.

Sadly Astral's wings were so tired now they felt like they wanted to just give out. This was her first flight and didn't have the muscle developed to sustain it for any longer. She came in for a hard landing flipping over a couple times from the momentum. She quickly stood up albeit wings drooping and panting. "That *pant* was *pant* amazing!"

Toothless landed closely behind far more gracefully and chuckled at his daughter's euphoria.

It took a long time before Astral was ready to learn anything else. She was having too much fun in the air. Eventually Toothless managed to wrestle her to the ground figuratively.

"Leason three." Toothless began. "Fire breathing. For most dragons it's mainly a defense but for us it's also an offense and can be used to stun a group of fish for easy pickings. Again like in all other ways we are the most evolved. Nadders like to believe they have the hottest fire but they don't really get a chance to feel our steady flame. It's useful to warm your nesting for the night but otherwise our plasma blast as some call it is far more effective. For now though let's just focus on a sustained flame. Hold your breath and try to breath out with your other lung the one you don't breath air with."

It took a bit of trying and looking goofy like she was about to puke or something before she managed to breath out a stream of gas.

"Good now there are a couple of plates below your tongue. Retract your teeth and press down with your tongue. They make a quiet click and create a spark that will ignite the gas. Try to blow out some gas, ignite it, and continue fueling it.

Astral managed to get that down on her first try. Though she cut it a little short for surprise. Not only could she fly but she can light what ever was in front of her with fire like it was a natural thing, because it was! When Cruinne offered to make her a dragon she thought it might be kinda neat but now she was really experiencing just how amazing it was.

Their training continued over the course of two and a half years. That was when something Toothless did not expect and was not prepared for, happened.

Astral had grown considerably since they had first arrived at this island. She was already near her father's size. She had finally gotten a look at herself a few times in a fresh water lake. She noted her purple eyes and how much sleeker she looked compared to her father. She looked a lot like him too like she could be his daughter though that was hard to judge without out any other Nightfuries as a reference point. This morning her body was changing in different ways. She was hot and bothered. Thoughts flowing freely through her mind the likes of which she had not had since her past life. A need was overwhelming her and the longer it went unstated the more it tortured her physically and mentally.

Astral nudged her father awake. It was still a decent ways before Nightfall which is when they usually woke up these days. "Dad I don't know what to do." This was the most embarrassing moment of her life and probably her previous too to have to seek her dad's help.

Toothless sniffed her and was relieved to find her scent wasn't affecting him. He was worried since they weren't blood related which just caused more question but those weren't for now. "This isn't right you shouldn't be having your first heat till at least another six years. Though you also shouldn't be this big. There isn't anything I can do to help you baby. Only by claiming a mate could you erm 'fix' it."

"This isn't going to be a monthly thing is it?" Astral asked worried.

"Oh heavens no. Though maybe we wouldn't be basically already extinct if it was. No it will last two weeks and will occur twice a year once during spring and once during fall." Toothless explained.

"And you're sure there aren't any other Nightfuries. Were the last? I just have to suffer through this?" Astral whined.

"Yes, I'm sure." Toothless said with grief and dipping his head down in defeat."

After another six months they decided it was time to head back to berk. Astral could hunt on her own and defend herself. She knew what it meant to be a dragon and to be a Nightfury. Though he had observed some troubling comments from Astral about humans. It seems despite having been hatched after the war she was bitter with them. Perhaps as a result of her captivity. He tried to get her to talk about what had happened while she was on outcast island, but she refused to talk.

Arriving back at berk Toothless swiftly began looking for his Hiccup. He missed him like one might miss their mate. Instead the due of Nightfuries were greeted with giant flying rocks and spears being hurtled their way.