TSNF: Hatchlings

A/N: This story picks up shortly after "The Second Night Fury (2015)" ends, reading that story first is highly advisable but not essentail to the enjoyment of this story. Please, enjoy the read.

It had been just four days since their hatchling had announced himself to the village during Snoggletog and he was still unable to fly or walk on his own. This, however, did not bother Toothless for he knew that when his son was ready, he would learn. The snow had continued to fall, and the pond in the cove had frozen over with a thin layer of ice—too weak for standing on Toothless found out two days prior. Toothless awoke early to gaze at what he believed to be the most magnificent sight of anything he'd seen. His mate Eletra sleeping peacefully under his wing while their hatchling nestled in her earflaps. He'd been waking up earlier than his mate since snoggletog to see her and his hatchling sleeping; only a few minutes later, their hatchling woke up. Toothless felt terrible knowing that his son was nameless, but he was relieved to see it hadn't bothered him. "Shhhh, we don't want to wake up your mother" Toothless whispered to his hatchling who had popped his head up from Eletra's earflaps and begun to fidget. He nodded gleefully and looked at his father's earflaps with big excited eyes. Toothless retracted his teeth and ever so carefully removed him from his mate's earflaps "you're going to have to climb to get to my earflaps Alchemy" Toothless said as best he could with a baby dragon in his mouth.

Within seconds, the hatchling was out of Toothless's mouth and slowly gripping his way up his father's muzzle. He may not have been able to walk yet, but in those four days, he'd come close to walking several times. He observed his mother and father leaving and returning to the cave for one reason or another and mimicked them. One of the things he had learned in place of walking, was to scale objects—mainly his parents. Alchemy was halfway up Toothless's muzzle when Toothless jolted in surprise, sending his son skidding off his muzzle until he grasped his father's nose with his front paws, while his back paws dangled helplessly. Toothless tilted his head up, and Alchemy regained his hold and climbed up to Toothless's earflaps. "Alchemy, what a fitting name, but how did I think of it?" Toothless said quietly to himself rolling the name over in his mouth. Toothless felt a tingly sensation along his back and then tiny methodical pressures slowly working its way down his body—it tickled, but he resisted the urge to look. Eletra meanwhile, had begun to stir slightly from her sleep.

Toothless, however, was too involved with following the pressure on his lower back to notice or realize. He became so engaged with what he was doing; he moved his wing that was protectively covering and warming most of his mate, giving in to the urge to look at his son on his back. He stood up and carefully stepped away from Eletra curious about his son's movements. Once in the clear, Toothless found Alchemy had moved all the way down to his tail and was concentrating on not falling off as he progressed towards his fins. Toothless took this opportunity to lift his tail slowly and surprised the little Night Fury who suddenly gripped the tail very tight. At first, it didn't bother Toothless, but soon all those little claws began to hurt, and he set his tail down again. When Eletra opened her eyes to see her hatchling slowly climbing his way up Toothless and plop down on her mate's head and chirp softly, she was ecstatic. She decided not to ruin the moment and closed her eyes again content to just listen to the conversation—at least that's what she told herself.

"Alchemy, that's going to be your name, do you like it?" Toothless said as his son jumped from his muzzle onto the ground. Once Alchemy was on the ground, he turned and nodded wildly, his eyes bulging with excitement. "Alchemy? When did you choose that name?" Eletra couldn't keep quiet any longer. Toothless looked to see Eletra staring at him. "It just came out, I was talking to him and called him Alchemy without realizing, he seems to like it." Alchemy chirped happily and a short few minutes later was asleep, worn out by the early morning excitement.

Shortly after Alchemy woke up again, he'd managed to get all four paws to cooperate with each other while walking on the ground. It was wobbly, but he was walking by himself. Eletra wanted dearly to understand what her hatchling was saying, as he was chirping all the while. She could, however, understand various facial expressions he'd picked up from watching Toothless. While Toothless found this highly entertaining, he was careful about using them around Alchemy—since he mimicked all of them. By late morning Toothless had left to check in with Hiccup, something he'd neglected to do since Alchemy's birth eight days ago.

"Toothless, where have you been! I've been worried sick about you, Stormfly couldn't even find you." Hiccup said when Toothless entered his house. "How is your tail holding up? Is your family okay?" and then Hiccup asked the one question Toothless wished he wouldn't ask. "When can we see your hatchling again? We only got a brief glimpse before he disappeared again. You wouldn't let anyone including me near Starlight the entire evening" Hiccup would have kept going had Toothless not let out an angry huff effectively silencing Hiccup. Wanting to change the subject Hiccup spoke again, "so why are you here bud? I almost never see you anymore". Toothless seemed to ignore Hiccup and his comment and went about finding a large basket before placing it at his riders feet with a smile. "Oh I see, you didn't come to see me, you came to get fish. That hurts Toothless" Toothless's ear's drooped as if he was apologizing to Hiccup, but he still nudged the basket determined to get the fish. "You win, I'll get the fish" Hiccup took the basket and vanished for what seemed like ages and returned with the basket full of fish. "Any chance of going flying later?' Hiccup asked hopefully, but Toothless gave him a look that said otherwise. "Guess not then" Hiccup sealed the basket and dragged it outside to watch Toothless promptly fly off the basket in tow.

Back in at the cave only an hour later, not a single fish remained. By mid-afternoon, a fast-moving blizzard had set in, and by nightfall and waves of pea-sized hail were coming down. Dangerous as it was, a fierce biting wind kicked up around the middle of the night with no sign of stopping. Eletra awoke suddenly to the howl of the wind outside and the soft glow of Twilight shining into the cave. She moved to get up only to hear Toothless shift beside her, she stopped and slowly walked away before venturing to the cave entrance to investigate. She could barely see out of the cave from the storm, but then she heard it. Eletra couldn't identify it at first, and before she could think what it might be, Toothless said in a whisper "shhh everything is okay Alchemy" while he slept unaware it wasn't his hatchling who screamed. A pang of terror gnashed at Eletra's heart, and if only to make things worse a series of branches snapped and a pitiful moan suddenly emanated from outside. Eletra panicked. In a heartbeat, she was out of the cave and blown smack into the snow by the frigid hail laced wind, in her haste to save the poor hatchling she'd forgotten about the storm. She heard the cry again, emboldened, Eletra quickly set to work making a path in the snow with her plasma blasts determined to reach the distressed dragon.

After several minutes of work, she could see the dragon calling for help. Caught in a plethora of downed branches was a weeping and very sad—Night Fury Hatchling. "How can this be? The closet Night Furies are much farther than any hatchling could fly" she didn't spend much time thinking of a reason as she quickly became absorbed in freeing the petrified hatchling. When Eletra, at last, managed to separate the hatchling, whose eyes were squeezed shut, from the branches; she quickly sealed herself and the hatchling protectively behind her wings. All at once, the hatchling realized it was no longer being pelted with hail and opened its eyes, green eyes stared back. Eletra smiled and knowing she couldn't keep her position for long instructed the hatchling to climb into her earflaps for protection. Eletra relaxed her wings, and she felt flat onto the snow, the hail had lifted slightly while the wind stayed strong. "Hold on!" Eletra could feel tiny claws grip under her earflaps as the hatchling followed her instructions. It hurt, but she didn't want to risk losing the hatchling again. She attempted to take off, a moment of stupidity that would cost her; she instead found herself overpowered by the wind. The next thing Eletra knew she was being shielded by Toothless who did not look happy. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING ELETRA!" he said furiously. "I-I what happened? Why are you here? You should be with Alchemy!" "He's inside my earflaps; he didn't want to be left alone. Now tell me why you're out here!" "I was-" Toothless interrupted "no, don't tell me, I need to get you back to the cave, YOU COULD HAVE DIED OUT HERE!" It took a little effort to guide a dazed Night Fury thru an oncoming vertical hail storm, but Toothless somehow managed it.

Back inside their cave, safe from the weather Toothless looked at his mate frustration evident on his face. "NOW WHY WERE YOU OUT THERE? I woke up to find you gone. Did you want Alchemy to grow up without a mother?!" at this point, Eletra intervened "Thascale I was outside for an important reason! I certainly wouldn't even think of letting our hatchling grow up without either of his parents!" Toothless's anger quickly dying down as he noticed something a little off around his mate's head. "Why did you go out?" he asked more curious now. "I went out because of her," and she signaled the hatchling to come out from her earflaps. This discovery shocked Toothless. "How did she get here? Hatchlings can't fly very far on their own." "I suspect she was brought here by the Storm." Eletra finished as the female Hatchling looked at both dragons curiously but somehow knew these dragons, while looking a great deal like her parents, were not her parents. "Do you think her parents will come here looking for her?" Toothless said looking at the hatchling, checking for visible injuries. "I'm sure they will." With that, Eletra was asleep.

By mid-morning, the hail had subsided to a dusting of flurries. While his mate slept, Toothless discovered that the lost hatchling had developed a case of the sniffles and sneezed every few minutes with no signs of stopping. He looked into the hatchling's blue eyes only to find they looked dull and weary; this troubled him. When Eletra finally woke up, he explained the importance of taking the lost hatchling to Valka to have her sickness remedied. Toothless did not know her name since she only chirped away like Alchemy and thus had no desire to name her. "I'll take her to Valka for her sneezing" Toothless knew that from his years with Hiccup it was something Vikings developed if they stayed out in the cold too long, but he had no idea how to treat it.

That afternoon, shortly after explaining to Eletra the importance, Toothless took the lost Night Fury to Valka. "Thank you Toothless for bringing her to me; I can tell something is wrong from all her sniffling and sneezing." Toothless nodded and waited, overlooking that Valka had identified the Night Furies gender. Valka inspected the hatchling and started to think of a remedy for her sneeze. "She isn't your hatchling, or I'd never gotten close to her so where did she come from?" Valka wondered out loud, the hatchling started to chirp wildly and struggled to get free. This startled both Valka and Toothless resulting in Valka letting the hatchling go who went tearing out the door of the Haddock house. Hiccup, who had been working on something for Astrid in his room, came racing or rather tumbling down the stairs. "Hiccup are you alright?" "Yeah, missed a step on the way down," he said dusting himself off and going over to Toothless. "Where is the hatchling?" Hiccup asked seeing no hatchling in sight, the three of them had the same thought "oh, no, where is the Night Fury?" Hiccup gave Toothless a hopeful look, and mere minutes later Toothless, and Hiccup were searching Berk from the sky. "I've missed flying with you bud" Before Hiccup could continue Toothless spotted the hatchling trying to fly away from Berk and quicken his pace. He noticed that every time she sneezed, she tumbled backward head over tail fins, so her progress was slow and tiring. Therefore, when Hiccup saw her, he sat up, outstretched his arms and the little Night Fury who was dizzier than anything was glad not to fly anymore and passed out in Hiccups outstretched arms. "Toothless I got her, let's head back to Berk."

Not too far away, two Night Furies frantically searched island after island after island for their hatchling with no luck. "Keep looking she couldn't have gone that far," The male Night Fury said to his mate. "You said that five islands ago and we still haven't found her! Why did she go out in a thunderstorm anyway!?" The female Night Fury asked frustrated at having her hatchling disappear. "How was I supposed to know she was awake!?" the two Night Furies were not happy with each other and continued their argument as they searched. When they arrived at Dragon island, they discovered a glimmer of hope; a Night Fury lived on a nearby island, somehow this ended their arguing.

The hatchling woke up a few minutes after Hiccup set her down but was too dizzy to move. Slowly she looked up at her rescuers; she stared at Toothless until a bowl of soup with a beautiful smell was placed in front of her. She quickly ate the soup and flew over to Toothless, having recovered her senses. She hiccupped and fell asleep between his wings were his saddle had been. This made Toothless miss Alchemy even more than he already was. "Toothless, she shouldn't fly for a while, that soup will make her drowsy" Valka said snapping Toothless back to the present. He nodded and left the Haddock house for his cave. By early evening the Hatchlings parents arrived on Berk, the directions they had received were not entirely accurate. Toothless was asleep with Alchemy curled up on his head, so Eletra was surprised when she heard voices from outside. The opening to their cave in the snow was easily missed so when she popped her head out it startled the two dragons immensely. "Who- What? How?" " Hello, who are you?" Eletra asked, "Oh, umm I'm Ashes, and this is my mate Storm," the female said still shocked. "I take it you're looking for a hatchling then?" Both Night Furies locked eyes on her. This made Eletra feel somewhat uncomfortable, but she continued, "I found a hatchling recently that was blown around in a Storm, she's inside my cave." With that Eletra disappeared and the two Night Furies stood there and looked at each other before going inside the cave after her.

Once inside the cave, the two Night Furies noticed Eletra had gone to wake up a hatchling that had positioned herself away from the other Night Fury in the cave. "Ember are you awake?" The hatchling's mother said, and within seconds the small dragon had repositioned herself in her mother's earflaps chirping and what sounded like cooing. "She's very fast" Eletra noted, "Yes, she can be, she wandered out in a thunderstorm and must have gotten confused." Ashes said before Storm spoke up, "So who is your mate over there? I didn't think Night Furies lived this far out." Forgetting what he'd been told on Dragon island. "There are a few, as you can see my mate Toothless is sleeping with our hatchling, Alchemy" "what kind of name is Toothless?" Storm said confused "It's kind of like the name Toothless," she said a touch offended. "I'm sorry for my mate's rudeness," Ashes said glaring at her mate, he nodded briefly and did not speak again. "So how did you come to live on Berk? Why so far away?" Ashes inquired "I haven't lived here very long, I was living on an island alone, Toothless sort of fell into my life," Eletra said smiling at her private jest to her first encounter with her mate. "Oh? I think that there is a lot connected with that comment" Ashes said intrigued. Storm was not too enthused and was rapidly discovering how dead tired he was. "Sorry to cut in but could we sleep here for tonight? I am exhausted, and it sounds like you two have a lot of talking to do" Storm said trying to be as polite as possible. Eletra nodded in agreement. It was then Eletra realized she hadn't introduced herself, "I'm Eletra by the way." With that Ashes and Eletra settled in for a long conversation while Storm quickly went to sleep.

In the morning Eletra awoke early, she wanted to be awake to explain to Toothless why two Night Furies were sleeping in their cave. She was right to do so, for when Toothless woke up, he was surprised and not at all happy that other Night Furies were in their cave. "What are they doing here?" he asked as quiet as he could manage in his surprised state. "They are the lost hatchlings parents" he nodded, calmed down and resumed sleeping not wanting to wake them prematurely. Eletra's earflaps felt oddly empty after looking at Ember peacefully sleeping on her mother. To remedy this, she woke up Alchemy who quickly and half asleep moved from his father's earflaps to his mother's. Toothless didn't get the chance to talk to the lost hatchlings parents as they left before he woke up again. "So who were they?" Toothless asked once he had returned with breakfast sometime later. "I told you, the lost hatchlings parents" "I meant what were their names?" Eletra swallowed a fish before answering "the female was named Ashes and her mate was named Storm, oh yes their hatchling was named Ember." Before Toothless spoke again, Alchemy appeared on his mothers head and plopped down with no intention of moving. "Did you find out anything else?" he asked, "yes" was her only reply.

A/N; story updated July 9th, 2018 for grammar and a few reworked sentences.