Left In The Night

Chapter 61

10 years later...

In the years following the visit to the Hidden World, a new tradition had come to New Berk for Snoggletog.

Every winter, for the holidays, Berk's dragons with their Alpha's would journey back to celebrate the holiday with their humans. It would follow the hatching season, so the Vikings could meet their dragon's offspring before they returned to the Hidden World.

With this new tradition, Hiccup, Zyrah, their families, and the other riders had a reason to look forward to the holiday season, getting to see how much Toothless, Blueheart, and their family and friends had grown over the year.

Everyone was eager to see how much the offspring of Toothless and Blueheart had grown, especially given that their oldest, Nightfire, was nearing adulthood, and was proving to be a powerhouse of a dragon. She had the strength of her father and the speed of her mother, and while she didn't mind giving rides to the kids every winter, she had shown to prefer being riderless.

Nightfire's little brothers, who'd been dubbed Greenstrike, the young male who was a spitting image of Toothless, and Thunderpine, the one with forest green eyes. Both of whom were named by Zyrah, as she (and the others) teased Hiccup for being terrible with names.

With all the dragons on New Berk, it looked to be a normal Snoggletog.

However, things did take a bit of a twist when a Nadder laid her eggs later than expected and was extremely hostile to anyone who came close, even her mate at first. She had placed them in a nest in the alley between her former rider's house and a neighbor's. It was rather clever, though it proved to be quite risky for anyone walking past as one had to physically turn into the alleyway to see the nest.

The warning had not exactly reached everyone in the village though, as Zyrah was heading down the path that crossed in front of that alleyway to run an errand for a friend when she heard the sound of growling and hissing that only came from a Nadder. She whipped her head around, and almost tripped over her feet when she stumbled backward, realizing she'd trespassed. Then behind her, a Zippleback rushed up in what appeared to be an attempt to shield Zyrah from the angry Nadder. The Zippleback released its gas, which caused Zyrah to start coughing. This must've triggered the Nadder enough, as the female then shot her fire at the Zippleback and Zyrah, reacting with the gas, and causing a massive explosion to echo through the village, rattling nearby houses.

The sound of the explosion even reached Hiccup's house, where he was having a meeting with Fishlegs, with Meatlug and Toothless lounging on the floor near the fireplace when they were rudely awoken by the sound

"What in Thor's name was that?!" The rotund Viking exclaimed. The two adults hurriedly exited the Chief's house to see people also leaving their homes, all utterly perplexed at where that explosion came from.

Hiccup and Fishlegs made their way in the direction of where the sound of the explosion came from with their dragons in tow, and they soon came across an utter mess of wood fragments scattered in the snow.

"Odin's beard..." Hiccup sighed, at a complete loss at the sight.

"Chief!" Someone called, rushing up.

"Muggur! What happened here?"

"Don't know exactly! But somethin' must've angered the Nadder! Methinks it was that Zippleback!" Hiccup sighed, it was never good if Zippleback gas got ignited, even by accident.

"Was the Nadder hurt? Her eggs?"

"Don't believe so!"

"Alright, let's help clean this place up then. Fishlegs, go check on the houses over there, and make sure everyone's unharmed. And also check on the Zippleback."