This was a difficult chapter to write for me, but I hope you guys enjoy it all the same! I'm excited because if you put the FF settings to 'Most followed' from K-T in the HTTYD section, I'm on page number five! And I honestly can't believe it. ;-; How?

##

In all honesty, Hiccup had not been able to witness any of the spectacles along the way to wherever the dragons were taking him. He was too busy keeping his head buried in the neck of Toothless.

In the past few weeks, the boy had been sure multiple times that he was going to die. And he truly would have preferred the quick and probably painless deaths that they would have provided him with to whatever was going to happen to him now.

The particular thought of being torn apart by a bunch of razor sharp teeth made him sick; it was the reasonable thing he could think of that could happen here. What else could they want with him?

So, while he wasn't entirely cowardly, the part of him that was kept him shutting out the sights while he tried to ignore the sounds.

A thousand snarling voices were filling him head, and it was maddening.

He wanted to ask Toothless what was going on; what was going to happen to them and why…but at this point he didn't want to risk anything. He figured that a huge part of this was his own fault, anyway. He could have been satisfied with lying on the ground still until his leg healed, but no. It was obviously much easier to put his best friend in danger by demanding a ride repeatedly.

A new kind of sickness overtook him, and it was almost worse than that of dreading death.

A sudden plunge in altitude had him gasping as his head shot up and his eyes opened for the first time in almost twenty minutes. Through the thick curling clouds large rocks passed as quickly as they appeared, some brushing the beasts' bellies and others so high that they were maneuvered around.

His eyes narrowed thoughtfully and he leaned sideways to stare down. Water that the rocks 'grew' out of was barely visible along with some interesting debris; The most noticeable being an entire Viking ship thrown on its side with a hull that looked like it had been torn apart by a humongous pair of hands. The once proud colors that had painted the ship looked worn down and gray…defeated along with whoever's souls had been lost there.

As he saw more and more debris, Hiccup began to wonder. He had heard all kinds of stories from his father about the great search for the dragon nest. Apparently they believed that it was hidden behind a thick cloud hiding dangerous rocks that the dragons could easily ambush behind that lived on the corpses of those brave enough to try and pass through.

This seemed to fit that description quite nicely.

He gulped and felt a shiver pass up his spine in anticipation; what his dad would give to be where he was right now. Scoping out the direction to the location of the dragon nest. It only made sense after hearing all those stories that that was where they were headed…but he could only guess.

He was still afraid but curious now. Even if he died, at least he would get to see something that no other human had apparently ever seen, right? It only comforted him a little.

A series of sudden sharp turns had him pressing down into Toothless again, but he kept his eyes open this time as the world around him began to grow darker; the group of dragons had entered some kind of cave, lit dimly by a reddish hue on the other end of the tunnel.

The hue turned out to be a collection of large fires whose light was spread about by the smoke from the various dragons crowding multiple niches in the rock. Those flying lowered briefly before swooping into an enormous open space, large enough to have fit more than several of Hiccup's villages and the land mass surrounding it combined.

Beasts of all sizes and colors inhabited the space, most of their beady eyes on the entering party. Others seemed suddenly meek and crept back, heads twisting down.

In the center of the area there was what appeared to be a humongous hole that gaped wide open; the bottom, if there was one, hidden by a thick mass of fog. The whole sight was a wonder to behold, but dreadful at the same time.

No shadow of a doubt now; this was the dragon's nest. He was inside it…probably the first alive human to enter.

Hiccup straightened up a hair on the saddle, trembling lightly, but doing his best to keep it under control; He had to be brave. Like his Dad. Mind you his Dad would probably be swinging his axe from side to side right about now, lobbing off the heads of anything that dared get close and yelling at the top of his lungs, 'Death or Glory!', but that wasn't the point.

Bravery, as he'd observed, came in many forms. His own version was just…different. Underdeveloped, maybe.

And then Toothless landed, feet touching down surprisingly softly on the gravel-strewn ground as his wings folded up and in as a pitiful attempt to hide the human on his back. Those who had guided them there touched down around them, and a few hovered above, prepared for an attempt at escape.

Silence choked the air around them and Hiccup was left to try to loosely observe what was going on through shaken eyes and body. What now? Wasn't someone supposed to be talking, or wasn't teeth supposed to be tearing through flesh? Something, anything, but this intense hush. If something bad was going to happen, he'd much rather it happen quickly…not like this.

But why was he even here? He had thought for disloyalty on Toothless' part, but why would they bother bringing him here? Wouldn't they have just killed him first and then brought his friend back?

With such questions in his head, it stirred his voice back into being and he gently leaned forward, "…T-toothless?"

The Night Fury's ears flicked and then pressed down, but that was the only indication given that he had heard him.

"What's going on, bud? What's happen-?"

"Quiet, please!" Toothless hissed back at him, teeth bared, but eyes shining with fear, "Don't move, and don't speak, no matter what happens…please, human."

Hiccup pulled back, eyebrows knitting together as he returned his gaze forward. He was noticing the gathering attention from the other dragons to the hole in the center. Although the tension had never been low, it seemed to be growing now somehow.

Teeth clicked, legs trembled, young dragons hid, and the earth below them seemed to be shaking gently, but growing in intensity.

A bright red Nightmare slid through the crowd surrounding them and stood on a ledge jutting a little over the hole. It bowed its head and closed its eyes, waiting.

Then, in a burst of flaming rock and hot dust, a figure erupted out of the hole, large enough to blot out half of the light in the area. Hiccup's hands dug hard into the saddle, heart suddenly knocking desperately against his chest. He felt himself a speck of dust compared to this thing and his mouth opened and closed uncontrollably as the fabled Red Death towered above them all, hideously large teeth sticking crookedly out of its mouth below its narrowed, small eyes.

"My Queen!" The Nightmare spoke up with volume, intending to catch her attention immediately.

The head turned, as if in slow motion, towards the speaker, lips curling up in an ugly snarl, "WHY HAVE YOU DISTURBED ME?" Despite the sheer great level of sound that boomed out and rang in Hiccup's ears, he found himself wondering how it could be so loud and yet so soft at the same time.

"My Queen, you know that we would never call you here for…any unimportant reason. We have found something that we believe you would like to see."As it began to back up, its tail swiveled and pointed straight at the surrounded Night Fury.

The Queen scanned the black dragon with little interest until she caught sight of the even smaller figure hunched down on top, mostly hidden by a pair of wings. She leaned in, one giant clawed paw reaching up and taking hold in a nearby firm chunk of rock, which in doing so made the ground give another more violent shake, "YOU HAVE BROUGHT A HUMAN TO ME." She sniffed, pulling back, head tilting expectantly to look again at the Nightmare, "BUT HAVE YOU BROUGHT ME THE RIGHT ONE?"

Its head drooped down quickly in a bow, "We are…mostly sure." A vibrating growl shook them and it realized its mistake, "W-we have been told that this one speaks like us! Is that not what you said it would do?"

"YES…" Her attention turned back to the boy, "HUMAN, IF YOU CAN UNDERSTAND US, THEN SPEAK. SAVE YOUR PATHETIC LIFE."

Toothless had told him not to say anything. He kept his eyes on the saddle and tried to calm his breathing; he trusted Toothless. If the dragon had told him not to speak, then he wouldn't. He doubted he could pull the bravery to do it, anyway.

Hot wind swept over him and he could tell – even without looking - that she was getting even closer to observe him. He continued to focus on breathing, telling himself that he wouldn't look…but some strange force was drawing him.

His head gave a painful jerk sideways and he gasped, eyes suddenly burning and vision bleary. It was like his body was moving without his own will. Like a choppy machine, he sat up and gazed right into the Queen's eyes. She was staring right through him; searching him for something.

But he didn't say anything; His mouth remained firmly sealed.

She pulled back, another snarl rocketing through the chest cavity of every living creature there, "THIS CANNOT BE THE ONE I ASKED FOR…YOU HAVE FAILED ME AGAIN." With a surprisingly fast and sickening snap, the Nightmare vanished from the stone it had been perched on, along with a part of the rock itself. But it was not even slightly a mouthful for her and she continued to speak without so much as a blink, "WHO ELSE WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR WASTING MY TIME…?"

Toothless was eagerly looked upon by the survivors, and the dragon's ears slowly bended down as he was put under the spotlight.

"YOU…YOU DARE LET IT RIDE YOU?" Her voice rose in volume briefly, "THOSE RUMORS OF YOUR TREACHERY ARE NOT TRUE, ARE THEY?"

"N-no, my Queen, I se-serve y-"

"THEN WHY HAVE YOU BROUGHT THIS ORDINARY HUMAN TO ME ON YOUR OWN BACK?"

"I-I-"

She didn't let him finish, "KILL HIM."

Hiccup yelped as he was abruptly thrown from his friend's back and collided with the solid ground. He pulled himself up with shaky arms and watched in horror as three larger dragons had set upon Toothless, white fangs glittering horribly, "N-no, stop!"

He could barely see what was going on; everything was moving so quickly. Only brief flashes of black showed up as the Night Fury attempted to fight back, thrashing furiously, but he was obviously fighting a losing battle. Although he was a superior species in many ways, it could not change his fate when he was attacked by many at once.

A Deadly Nadder approached and sprang on top of the chaos, one powerful leg raising to deliver a blow.

The boy's heart froze solid in his chest when a gut-wrenching scream tore from the fighting dragons and a spray of bright red blood spattered against the ground.

##

"Dad, why do they yell before they attack?"

"Hm?" Stoick twisted in his chair wearily to see his son, "The Night Furies?"

"Yeah…" Hiccup carefully walked back to his father, bowl of semi-heated water in his hands with a cloth drifting inside, "If they never miss, why do they have to announce that they're gonna shoot?"

The bowl and cloth were taken and the Chief rubbed the cloth roughly over his blackened face, "It's not a scream, Hiccup. All dragons' make noises before they spit flame…they're charging it, I guess. That's the best our ancestors could figure, anyway."

"Oh." The boy sat down nearby and placed his head in his hands, "Can dragons yell like us?"

Stoick gave a snort and dropped the soiled cloth in the water to rinse it out, "Aye, they can; but rarely. They're more the silent killer type. They scream when they're hurt, or more specifically, when they know they're goin' to die."

"You've heard a Night Fury do it?"

He smiled, "No, son. But I promise you that you'd know it if one of those devils did it and meant it."

##

With the last bit of bravery that he could muster, Hiccup stood and yelled at the top of his lungs, "STOP!"

And everything did. The fight stopped, the Queen stopped, and the jeering of the others stopped. The spotlight turned from Toothless to the human in seconds, and the excited faces of the beasts were now shocked; frozen into place.

The human had spoken their tongue.

The Queen recovered the quickest, and snarled softly, "SO YOU DO SPEAK OUR LANGUAGE, HUMAN? INTERESTING…"

He blinked up at her pleadingly, mouthing, 'please' hopelessly. If Toothless died because of him, he wasn't sure if he could live with himself, even if he most likely would have been the next to go. The thought was too awful to comprehend.

"TELL ME YOUR NAME." She commanded.

He all but choked out, "Hic-cup." He glanced back to where the fight had been to see that the main offenders had backed away from their would-be kill and were now faithfully listening to their leader.

Toothless was lying on the ground, back faced towards him.

The most awful part was that there was no way of telling from here how bad his injuries were. What if he was dying? Bleeding out? He swallowed, trying to keep the starting tears out of his eyes.

"SUCH A STRANGE HUMAN NAME…" She swayed to look at Toothless, "IT SEEMS AS THOUGH I WAS WRONG ABOUT YOU; YOU REMAIN FAITHFUL TO ME. BUT WHAT OF THE RUMORS OF YOUR DISLOYALTY?"

A moment passed before the dragon regained his voice and huffed out with a quavering voice, "Th-they…are false…I am…loyal. I brought him…to you."

What was almost a smile grew on the Queen's face, "YOU HAVE DONE WELL...VERY WELL."